Interswitch, Paga have entered a partnership with the Open Technology Foundation (OTF), the not-for-profit organisation driving the development and adoption of Open Banking standards in Nigeria. A collaborative move seen at championing open banking advocacy aimed at driving innovation in Nigeria’s financial ecosystem.
The addition of Interswitch and Paga as the newest corporate members of the Open Banking Nigeria would serve to further drive the adoption and promotion of a standard Application Programming Interface (API) for financial services in Nigeria.
Akeem Lawal, the Interswitch divisional chief executive officer for payment processing said the company has been at the forefront of innovation in Africa’s banking and financial services industry for almost two decade. “At Interswitch, we believe that standardised APIs would significantly transform payments in Nigeria and Africa as a whole. Nigeria is a global leader in payments and is expected to similarly lead with Open APIs. As an organisation, we are committed to working with banks and the Central Bank to actualise the Open Banking agenda of the Payment Systems Vision 2030.”
Around the world, Open Banking is transforming the financial landscape beyond the bricks and mortar by enabling and extending financial services beyond traditional services and offerings that improves overall customer engagement and increasing revenue from new channels. The benefits according to analysts also include the enablement of a sustainable service model for underserved markets of the financial ecosystem.
Jay Alabraba, the co-founder and director of business development of Paga said the partnership will position Paga to contribute to deepening financial inclusion in Nigeria. “We understand the importance of collaboration to achieve the goal of extending the frontiers of payments and financial services as a whole. Partnering with Open Technology and other industry stakeholders would further advance our innovative drive; broaden the wide range of our solution offerings to customers.”
Ope Adeoye, a trustee at Open Banking Nigeria, said the collaboration will further deepen the frontiers of APIs standard for the Nigerian banking and financial services industry.
Paga is a mobile payment company that has served over 12 million customers and processed over 72 million transactions worth $4.6 billion in a decade. The firm is building an ecosystem to enable people to digitally send and receive money and creating simple financial access for everyone.
Providing convenience and real value for consumers, Interswitch is an Africa-focused integrated digital payments and commerce company that facilitates the electronic circulation of money as well as the exchange of value between individuals and organisations on a timely and consistent basis.
SEYI JOHN SALAU
