CBN directs banks to share customers’ data with Fintechs

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has asked commercial banks to share their customers’ data with financial technology (Fintech) companies to increase access to financial services and provide better services to customers.

CBN Director, Payment System Management, Musa Jimoh disclosed this yesterday during the virtual FirstBank FinTech Summit 4.0 held in Lagos with the theme: “How Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence will Disrupt FinTech in Nigeria”.

He said the directive was in line with the apex bank’s five- year vision and open banking regime policy that would require banks to open their account base to Fintechs to bring more people into the financial system.

Jimoh described Fintechs as technology-enabled innovation in financial services that could result in new business models, applications, processes or products with an associated material effect on the provision of financial services.

Fintech firms like Quick-teller, MoniDey, Baxi, PocketMoni, Unified Payments, Paga, Cellulant, to mention but a few are now part of the financial system, offering banking services to both the banked and unbanked within the population.

The companies are helping consumers in bill payments, retail payments, airtime purchases and use of Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) transactions. They also collect payment from all spectrums of the population – whether banked or not.

Jimoh said the CBN is also boosting the use of artificial intelligence in banking, and promoting digital payment access all sectors of the economy.