Kenya can learn from the experiences of other markets and leapfrog directly to the next era of open banking, industry experts have said.
Open banking is a system that enables banks share certain data via secure application programming interfaces and allows for development of a range of digital financial services that can be used by customers to transact, manage their finances and have full access to all their data.
Willie Kanyeki, Myriad Connect’s business development director – Africa says in developed nations, fintech is transforming financial services.
“Open banking will drive transformation in digital financial services by simultaneously empowering consumers to own and share their data and enable financial service providers to leverage this data to deliver enhanced capabilities to the marketplace.”
Willie believes that many banks and fintechs already have a closer working relationship in East Africa than those in Europe, for example, positioning them to move quickly to an Open Banking environment across the East African financial services ecosystem.
“East Africa now has an opportunity to build on the experience of other markets that are already embracing Open Banking, and move directly to a more effective model in the region,” according to Willie.
