Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Sparkle, Uzoma Dozie believes the next frontier of Nigeria’s financial revolution will not be defined by new banking apps or digital payment innovations alone. Instead, it will be driven by something far more fundamental: ownership of data. In his view, open banking represents a transformative shift that places financial information where it truly belongs, in the hands of customers, while creating a smarter, faster and more inclusive financial ecosystem.
Speaking on ARISE News’ Global Business Report, Dozie described open banking as one of the most consequential developments for Nigeria’s financial services industry, explaining that it has the potential to reshape lending, deepen financial inclusion, accelerate innovation and strengthen trust across the banking ecosystem.
For decades, customer financial records have largely remained trapped within individual financial institutions. A customer may have spent years building a financial history with one bank, yet that valuable record often becomes inaccessible when seeking services elsewhere. According to Dozie, this has created unnecessary barriers for consumers and businesses alike.
YOU CAN ALSO READ: Why Smart Investors Should Watch Nigeria’s Second-Half Story, Says Felicia Awolope
He explained that open banking changes this dynamic by allowing customers to securely authorise the transfer of their financial information from one institution to another through standardised digital systems. Rather than repeatedly submitting printed statements or manually proving their financial history, customers can now decide who accesses their information and for what purpose.
“The power is moving back to the customer,” he explained. “People should be able to own their financial data and decide when and where it can be used.”
This customer-centric approach, he argued, represents a significant evolution in digital finance. Financial information, once locked inside isolated banking systems, becomes portable, secure and immediately useful across multiple financial service providers, enabling better products and more personalised services.
Central to this transformation is the use of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), the invisible technology that enables different digital platforms to communicate seamlessly.
Rather than describing APIs in purely technical language, Dozie offered an everyday analogy. Visiting a restaurant, he explained, customers do not enter the kitchen to prepare their own meals. Instead, a waiter provides the menu, receives orders and coordinates communication between diners and chefs. APIs perform a similar role within digital banking, serving as trusted intermediaries that allow different computer systems to exchange information efficiently and securely.
Nigeria’s banking industry already uses APIs extensively, but according to Dozie, many of these systems operate independently with varying standards, creating fragmentation across the financial sector.
Open banking seeks to establish a common language that allows every participating institution to communicate using consistent protocols. He likened this standardisation to the global adoption of USB Type-C charging ports. Where consumers once carried multiple chargers for different devices, universal standards have simplified connectivity. Open banking, he noted, aims to deliver the same level of simplicity and interoperability for financial data.
Beyond convenience, Dozie believes trust remains the cornerstone upon which successful open banking must be built. As financial institutions exchange increasingly sensitive customer information, data privacy and security become even more critical. He stressed that Nigeria’s open banking framework has been designed with customer consent at its core.
No financial information can be shared without the explicit approval of the account holder, and every request for access requires fresh authorisation. This consent-driven architecture aligns with Nigeria’s evolving data protection regulations while ensuring customers retain complete control over their personal information.
He contrasted this with existing practices where customers frequently email bank statements to third parties, often losing visibility over where those documents end up or who eventually accesses them.
Open banking offers a far more secure alternative. Customers specify exactly what information is shared, over what period, and with whom, all through encrypted digital channels designed specifically for regulated data exchange.
For Dozie, this increased transparency and control will ultimately strengthen confidence in Nigeria’s digital economy.”When trust increases, commerce grows,” he observed, arguing that confidence in secure information sharing will unlock entirely new economic opportunities across lending, payments and digital commerce.
He also praised the Central Bank of Nigeria for taking a leadership role in developing the continent’s first comprehensive open banking regulatory framework.
Nigeria, he noted, has already established the infrastructure, technical standards and governance structures required to support open banking. While implementation has taken longer than initially anticipated, he believes the delay reflects the importance of deploying such a critical system carefully rather than rushing to market.
Originally expected to go live in 2025, open banking has now been incorporated into the Central Bank’s Payment System Vision 2028. Although stakeholders remain eager for implementation, Dozie believes ensuring reliability, security and public confidence outweighs the benefits of speed.
The recent acknowledgement of open banking by the Central Bank Governor as a strategic priority further reinforces confidence that the initiative remains central to Nigeria’s long-term financial inclusion agenda. Far from viewing open banking as a threat to established financial institutions, Dozie believes it represents an enormous opportunity.
Banks possess decades of valuable customer information that, if responsibly leveraged, could enable faster credit decisions, improved customer experiences and more innovative financial products. Institutions willing to embrace open banking stand to unlock significant competitive advantages.
Those that hesitate, however, risk falling behind. Open banking creates a more level competitive landscape where fintech companies and digital banks can deliver highly personalised financial services without requiring customers to restart their financial history from scratch.
This, Dozie explained, becomes even more powerful when combined with artificial intelligence. AI systems can analyse years of transaction history within seconds, generating richer insights into customer behaviour, creditworthiness and financial needs than traditional assessment methods ever could.
The result is smarter lending, faster approvals and significantly reduced operating costs. He pointed out that conventional lending models often treat the cost of evaluating a small borrower almost the same as assessing a large corporate client, limiting financial institutions’ willingness to serve underserved market segments.
Open banking changes this equation by dramatically lowering the cost of acquiring reliable customer information. With greater access to verified financial data, lenders can reduce risk, price loans more accurately and extend credit to millions of individuals and small businesses previously excluded from formal finance.
YOU CAN ALSO READ: How Tonye Cole Turned Failure into a Billion-Dollar Legacy
For Nigeria’s growing digital economy, Dozie sees this as one of open banking’s greatest promises. Affordable credit, powered by trusted data, could unlock entrepreneurship, stimulate business expansion and accelerate economic growth. Yet technology alone will not guarantee success.
Public awareness, he insisted, will determine how quickly open banking achieves widespread adoption. Many Nigerians remain unfamiliar with the concept, making education an essential next step.
Helping consumers understand that they, not financial institutions, own their financial information will encourage greater participation while building confidence in the system.
Ultimately, Dozie sees open banking not simply as another financial technology initiative but as a structural reform capable of redefining how trust, innovation and financial opportunity intersect in Nigeria.
By empowering customers with ownership of their data, creating common standards for information exchange and enabling intelligent financial decision-making, open banking, he believes, has the potential to become one of the most important catalysts for Nigeria’s next phase of financial and economic development.
