Recently, the Central Bank of Nigeria released draft regulations for the Open Banking framework.
In a clear term, the Open Banking framework is tailored towards integrating various stakeholders within the financial services sector such as banks, Fintech and regulators to create a better banking experience that meets the needs of customers.
The key enabler for an efficient Open Banking landscape is the Application Programming Interface (API) that integrates the entire banking industry with the various stakeholders thereby allowing the flow of data between systems. An API is simply a standardized means by which technology platforms from different vendors or locations interact with each other.
This sounds creative especially as the numbers of Fintechs continue to innovate, a common API standard is a solution to solving the problems hindering the expansion of digital payments and financial inclusion in the country.
Once this solution becomes operational, it will pave the way for over 40 million unbanked Nigerians who are financially excluded from the formal financial sector. And also position Nigeria as the pioneer of the Open banking solution in Africa as other countries are yet to embrace this framework
