The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has clarified that open banking has yet to be officially launched, despite earlier projections targeting August 2025. The regulator emphasizes that significant strides are being made in establishing governance frameworks and standardizing APIs to ensure the system’s security and efficiency.
“Open banking is not operational at this time,” stated Chai Gang, Deputy Director of the CBN’s Payments Systems Policy Department. “We have developed a governance model and are in the process of creating a uniform API standard. The launch is imminent.”
Gang shared these insights during a panel discussion at Moonshot by TechCabal, where he was joined by Tunde Ogundipe, CEO of E-doc Online, a platform providing open banking data infrastructure tailored for emerging markets, to review the current status of the policy.
Although the CBN released operational guidelines for open banking in March 2023, the technical and regulatory preparations remain ongoing, with no updated timeline announced for the full rollout.
“We have both the guidelines and the framework for open banking in Nigeria,” Gang explained. “Protecting customer data privacy is paramount, and we must be vigilant about who gains access to personal information.”
Open banking enables authorized financial institutions and third-party providers to exchange customer data with explicit consent through APIs. Once implemented, this system is expected to foster innovative digital financial services and expand credit availability across various sectors.
“Customer consent forms the cornerstone of open banking,” Gang emphasized. “We are developing an automated mechanism to ensure customers are fully informed about what data is shared, the duration of access, and their ability to revoke permissions at any time.”
Driving Financial Inclusion Through Collaboration
Ogundipe highlighted that the success of open banking hinges on robust cooperation and mutual trust among all stakeholders. He stressed that effective customer consent, partnerships between banks and fintechs, and a collaborative digital economy are essential to avoid competitive conflicts.
“Open banking is a powerful tool for enhancing financial inclusion, particularly by enabling more small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to access credit, thereby integrating more individuals into the financial ecosystem,” Ogundipe noted, pointing out its potential impact on underserved rural communities.
With approximately 40 million small businesses in Nigeria often lacking formal documentation or collateral, many remain excluded from traditional lending. Sharing data through open banking could help create alternative credit profiles, unlocking new financing opportunities.
Data Control and Accountability in Open Banking
As Nigeria’s open banking framework prepares for launch, Gang explained that the CBN will clearly delineate accountability in the event of data breaches, a critical concern as more entities gain access to sensitive customer information. Responsibility will depend on where the breach occurs within the system.
Licensed operators will manage personal customer data and bear full responsibility for any breaches, whereas unlicensed parties will only be permitted to handle anonymized, non-identifiable data.
“The party that loses the data is liable,” Gang affirmed. “Whether data is stored or transmitted, it must be safeguarded, and failure to do so carries consequences.”
He further clarified that both regulated open banking participants and non-regulated entities must implement stringent security measures once they have custody of customer data.
Streamlining Integration and Fair Governance
Ogundipe described the current challenges faced by operators who must integrate with multiple banks, each with its own API, complicating data aggregation. Open banking aims to simplify this by providing a single, standardized API and a centralized registry.
“Dealing with 27 different bank APIs is cumbersome,” he said. “Open banking consolidates this into one standard interface, reducing fraud risks and cutting integration time drastically.”
He also stressed the importance of a balanced and decentralized governance framework that ensures equitable treatment for all fintech companies and traditional banks involved in the ecosystem.
“If banks control everything, it will be difficult to maintain fairness,” Ogundipe remarked. “The system must provide a level playing field for all participants.”
The existing framework offers banks clear guidelines on collaborating with both licensed and unlicensed players seeking to join the open banking environment, facilitating smoother decision-making processes.
The Potential Role of Stablecoins in Nigeria’s Open Finance
During the panel, Gang confirmed that the CBN is actively examining how virtual assets, including stablecoins, fit within Nigeria’s regulatory landscape.
“We are aware of the growing use of virtual assets, particularly stablecoins, in the country,” he said. “The CBN is closely monitoring these developments.”
However, he cautioned that since most stablecoins are pegged to the US dollar, widespread retail adoption could impact Nigeria’s monetary policy.
“We are collaborating with agencies like the Securities and Exchange Commission to assess the implications. These discussions are ongoing and necessary,” Gang added.
Nigeria’s open banking initiative remains one of the continent’s most forward-thinking projects. The CBN insists that a measured and deliberate approach is essential to maintain public confidence. As Gang concluded, the system’s infrastructure is being meticulously constructed, step by step, ahead of its eventual launch.