Kenya 
Why Nigeria's Open Banking Framework Will Underperform Its Promise
Nigeria
Financial Services
Nigeria became the first African country to go live with formal open banking on 1 August 2025. The Central Bank of Nigeria, the Open Banking Initiative, and most of the Nigerian fintech press have framed this as a transformative moment. We are not convinced. Our view is that the framework will produce meaningful but limited gains over the next 24 months, and that the transformative outcome the advocates promised will not arrive on schedule. Here is why.
On 1 August 2025, Nigeria became the first African country to implement a formal open banking framework. The Central Bank of Nigeria, the Open Banking Initiative, and most of the Nigerian fintech press have framed this as a transformative moment, the end of a decade of regulatory wrangling and the beginning of a new er...
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