By FintechNGR
Nigeria’s fintech ecosystem is on the brink of a major shift as Open Banking prepares to move from concept to full implementation. At the Q2 edition of the FintechNGR Reguvators Forum held on June 26, 2025, Mr. Musa Jimoh, Director of Payment Systems Policy at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), offered deep insights into the regulatory vision, implementation roadmap, and long-term implications of Open Banking for Nigeria.
This isn’t just about APIs and data sharing. It’s about redefining how banks, fintechs, and consumers interact, with a sharper focus on innovation, security, and inclusion.
The Central Bank of Nigeria issued its Open Banking Framework in 2022 and followed up with operational guidelines in 2023. Since then, the focus has shifted toward readiness: ensuring financial institutions can securely expose APIs and that fintechs are positioned to build services around them.
According to Mr. Jimoh, the implementation target remains August 2025. Every financial institution must ensure compliance with the standards. These include API specifications, customer consent protocols, data protection rules, and security benchmarks. A regulatory sandbox remains active to test live solutions, with several fintechs currently being vetted for licensing.
This sets the tone for a significant pivot in Nigeria’s digital finance space where access to data becomes as valuable as access to capital.
While regulatory alignment is crucial, the bigger story lies in what Open Banking enables. With customer permission, fintechs can access bank-held data and use it to design smarter, more inclusive tools like personal finance apps that offer automated budgeting, real-time credit scoring, and cross-platform transaction management.
This democratizes financial services and opens doors to underserved segments, including rural users and informal entrepreneurs. Such applications are expected to thrive on low-data, offline-capable platforms to ensure reach beyond Nigeria’s urban centers.
For the CBN, this isn’t just a tech upgrade. It’s a national strategy to deepen inclusion and accelerate innovation.
Of course, data sharing raises important concerns about privacy and misuse. The CBN has made it clear that no data should be accessed without the customer’s explicit consent. We’re not building an open system. We’re building a permissioned one, Jimoh noted.
The policy mandates that financial institutions adopt unified consent mechanisms, backed by strong cybersecurity. But beyond regulations, the forum emphasized the need for active consumer education. People must understand what they are agreeing to, how their data is used, and how to revoke access.
Trust, as one participant put it, will be just as important as tech.
One theme echoed throughout the forum: Open Banking cannot succeed in isolation. It will take active participation across all players including banks, fintechs, infrastructure providers, and regulators to make the system work.
Mr. Jimoh encouraged players across the spectrum, including digital lenders, IMTOs, POS agents, and even cooperative societies, to bring ideas into the regulatory sandbox. It’s an open call for innovation based on collaboration.
Even with a strong foundation, the journey to implementation won’t be without hurdles. Participants pointed to a few key risks such as delays in adopting API standards, gaps in infrastructure security, fragmented understanding across institutions, and insufficient end-user awareness.
To avoid these pitfalls, coordinated education, technical capacity-building, and policy clarity are urgently needed.
If done right, Open Banking could be a game changer. For fintechs, it unlocks a wave of product innovation built on better data. For banks, it opens new channels for customer engagement and partnership. For consumers, it promises more choice, better experiences, and safer access to credit and services.
But perhaps most importantly, it’s a chance for Nigeria to lead not just in policy, but in practical innovation that improves lives.
As the session concluded, there was cautious optimism. The framework is in place. The tech is advancing. Now it’s about execution, education, and trust.
Nigeria’s Open Banking journey has moved beyond compliance. The real work and opportunity start now.