CRC Credit Bureau Limited is leading a campaign for open banking in Nigeria that will help Nigerians enjoy more transparency in their financial transactions.
Open banking is a system under which banks open up their application programming interfaces (APIs), allowing third parties to access financial information needed to develop new apps and services and providing account holders greater financial transparency options. It offers incumbent banks the opportunity to partner with financial technology companies (fintech) rather than compete with them.
CRC Credit Bureau is leading this conversation in Nigeria and has hosted an online webinar themed ‘Open Banking: Implications for Payments System and Access to Credit.’This was the 5th in the ‘You and Credit’ webinar series organised as part of CRC’s Corporate Social Responsibility initiative to educate individuals and businesses on credit and finance.
The keynote speaker, Musa I. Jimoh, director of Payments System Management Department represented by Olubukola Akinwunmi, assistant director Payment Systems Management Department of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) provided an overview of the regulatory framework of the policy. One of the benefits he highlighted in open banking is the sharing and leveraging of customer data with customer permission by banks and third-party firms to build applications and services.
This will in turn provide an opportunity for growth, product offerings and greater financial transparency for account holders and competition in the financial services sector.
Adedeji Olowe, chief executive officer of Trium Limited and a member of the Board of Trustees of Open Banking Nigeria, a non-profit organisation, focused on the open banking initiative for Nigerian financial services outlined the goals of the foundation of open banking and the proposed impact on access to credit and the Nigerian economy.
Similarly, Deji Oguntonade, director of Digital Payments Nigeria of the Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors provided an expose on the roles and responsibilities of consumers in the open banking sphere. He also explained the expected outcomes and effects on financial inclusion that may arise from open banking.
According to ‘Tunde Popoola, managing director/CEO of CRC Credit Bureau Limited “For us at CRC, we have identified the direction of information dissemination and availability among players in the economy and our products and services are driven by data. We represent one side of the financial intermediation equation by holding and disseminating data on credit activities.”
To complete access to information deposit mobilisation and payments system require democratisation. It is therefore not strange, according to Popoola that today, “we are discussing Open Banking and as a player in the data management sector of the Nigerian economy, we were encouraged to organise this webinar to discuss this.”
CRC Credit Bureau is the largest Credit Bureau in Nigeria and provides a nationwide repository on credit profiles of corporate entities as well as consumers.
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