Open Banking Nigeria
To drive the adoption of an industry-wide, non-partisan standard for stakeholders in Nigeria’s financial services ecosystem towards the provision of improved, customer-focused and tailored services, eTranzact International Plc, Nigeria’s premier payment processor and Accounteer, the frontline cloud accounting solutions provider have individually announced their partnerships with Open Banking Nigeria, the foremost advocate of Open Banking in Nigeria.
This revelation was made recently after the leadership of eTranzact and Accounteer formally joined efforts with Open Banking Nigeria and other players in Nigeria’s financial services industry, including banks, fintechs, and professional services firms, for the advocacy, development and adoption of unified Application Programming Interface (API) standards for the attainment of further innovations in the financial services industry.
Niyi Toluwalope, Chief Executive Officer of eTranzact, commenting on the partnership expressed his excitement at the opportunity to contribute to the advocacy efforts, provide technical review for API specifications, and directly engage other industry stakeholders for the collective good.
“As a stakeholder within the Nigerian financial and payments ecosystem, we are aware of the opportunities for growth that come from innovation and financial inclusion. We are also aware of the challenges that fintechs face when integrating with banks using APIs, and we are excited about the efforts of the Open Technology Foundation,” said Toluwalope.
He also confirmed the firm’s commitment to the implementation of its APIs and gateways in line with the Open Banking API standard.
According to a recent publication by PwC and Open Banking Nigeria, “APIs have become the world’s most popular means of integrating software systems. However, the beauty of APIs is only appreciated when companies agree on common standards.” A similar instance where such standards have driven innovation and exceptional ease for consumers concerns debit card, which irrespective of the issuing institution, they are universally accepted at ATM/PoS terminals around the world because issuers abide by a global standard.
“Accounteer would like to contribute to the Open Banking community because we work with banks across different use cases and would love to leverage some of your APIs to drive more value for our customers,” said Merijn Campsteyn, the Chief Executive Officer of Accounteer.
“We are delighted to have eTranzact and Accounteer join the group driving the adoption of unified API standards for financial services in Nigeria,” said Ope Adeoye, Open Banking Nigeria’s representative, “because among other benefits, they both would facilitate the attainment of a system that allows enhanced cross-industry collaborations which would immensely increase the number of product and service offerings available to consumers of financial services in the country.”
Processing transactions worth billions of dollars annually and supporting forward-thinking businesses and individuals daily, eTranzact is a multi-application, multi-channel electronic transaction switching and payment processing provider.
Accounteer provides smart cloud accounting tools that address entrepreneurs’ bookkeeping and accounting needs. Its flexible and all-inclusive pricing model has made them a top choice for many startups and businesses in Nigeria.
