3 things to know about Nigeria's open banking legislation

Nigeria became the first African nation to approve open banking operational regulations

Image by Randy Rodriguez from Pixabay

This week, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) approved operational guidelines on open banking. Therefore, Nigeria became the first country in Africa to adopt legislation around this financial concept.

Here are three key points:

• The CBN has earlier announced the introduction of a regulatory framework for open banking in early 2021.

• Wallet Africa, OnePipe, Paystack, KPMG, PwC, and EY were early supporters of open banking in the country. With the addition of companies like Mono, Switch, Lendsqr, Palmpay, Carbon, and Trium, such alliance has grown.

• Millions of Nigerian residents, especially a large number of unbanked individuals, could potentially benefit from increased access to regional financial services and greater financial inclusion as a result of the PSD2-style legislation.

Perhaps, other countries on the continent could soon be next: South Africa and Kenya come to mind.