The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has demanded banks and other financial institutions in Nigeria to embrace opportunities represented by Open Banking to drive financial inclusion in the country, according to The Will . Open Banking is the practice of sharing financial information electronically, securely, and only under conditions that customers approve of it.

It enables third party developers to build applications and services around the financial institution, particularly the banks who hold customer data. The CBN said that banks and other financial institutions were already attuned to all the various technology changes within this space. The financial service sectors would adjust to the continued transformation of fintech space, as they had always shown resilience and preparedness to respond quickly to emerging issues, said CBN staff.

The apex bank in furtherance of its mandate for the stability of the financial system and pursuant to its role in deepening the financial system had developed the regulatory framework on Open Banking in Nigeria, which was issued in February 2021. It became expedient for the CBN to provide appropriate framework and guidelines to regulate the practice, having observed the green integration of banks and other financial institutions with innovation in financial services space, and the increased adoption of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs)-based integration in the industry. In May 2022, the CBN issued the draft of the operational guidelines for Open Banking in Nigeria to the public for comments.

According to CBN staff, the framework was aimed at identifying data that might be exchanged and corresponding API services that might be implemented and used by the participants.