Sparkle, a digital bank for the retail sector founded by the erstwhile former CEO of Diamond Bank Plc., has become the latest stakeholder in Nigeria’s financial services industry to join other fintechs, banks and accounting firms in the cause for the attainment of unified Open Banking standards to transform Nigeria and lead Africa into a future of enriched, customer-centric and personalised services.
Sparkle, which provides mobile, simple and customised business support, lifestyle and financial services, disclosed this as it announced its partnership with Open Banking Nigeria, the foremost advocate of opening banking in the country.
Already impacting the financial experience of the everyday Nigerians through a suite of innovative lifestyle services, and with features, no other finance platform provides today, the fintech—through this partnership—will collaborate with other players in the financial services industry to promote, develop and adopt industry-wide Application Programming Interface (API) standards.
Founded in 2019 by the fintech visionary and former Group Managing Director of Diamond Bank, Uzoma Dozie, Sparkle is a mobile-first, retail-focused platform which connects retailers and consumers in Nigeria using Artificial Intelligence to influence purchasing decisions based on user-generated behavioural data.
Uzoma, who at Diamond Bank built a formidable retail banking arm of the organisation, driven by technology, spoke about the impact expected from Sparkle as they join other key industry stakeholders to chart the course for a brighter future for all: “At Sparkle, we recognise the potential of Open Banking to transform banking as we know it today in dimensions that will create greater opportunities and result in a cross-industry boom as well as growth across the value chain, as we all work together to strive for enhancing financial inclusion in Nigeria.”
“Our partnership with Open Banking Nigeria signifies our belief in the need to enhance service delivery to customers across the spectrum,” Uzoma added. “Already, we are building an ecosystem that allows external developers to collaborate and build new solutions that would benefit all. And so, this partnership is indeed well-timed.”
Also commenting, Ope Adeoye, a Trustee of Open Banking Nigeria speaks: “We are more than excited to welcome Sparkle to the fold of pacesetting organisations championing a course for the entire industry and, more importantly, for our customers. There is the certainty their participation would further help individuals and businesses to achieve their objectives.”
Open Banking Nigeria drives innovation and choice for customers, businesses, fintech companies and banks with the next generation API standards in partnership with a growing body of providers and partners helping to transform banking in Nigeria.
