Accra: A strong case is emerging for Ghana to adopt common open banking API standards to accelerate financial inclusion, foster innovation, and improve digital service delivery across the financial ecosystem. An Open Banking API is a secure way for banks and other financial institutions to share financial data with authorized third-party providers (TPPs).
According to Ghana News Agency, at a recent industry dialogue, key figures from Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems (GhIPSS), MobileMoney LTD, and IMANI Center for Policy and Education called for urgent collaboration among banks, fintechs, and regulators to create a unified national framework for open banking and interoperability. They made the call at the 2025 Fintech Stakeholder Forum in Accra on the theme: 'Harnessing Ghana's Fintech Potential: Regulatory Frameworks for Digital Credit and Digital Assets.'
The forum, organised by MobileMoney LTD, brought together regulators, fintech firms, banks, policy experts, and academia to deliberate on how Ghana could strengthen digital payments and ensure responsible innovation in the growing fintech space. Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of GhIPSS, Clara B. Arthur, emphasized that interoperability already offered a pathway to open banking and API standardization in Ghana's payments landscape. She said common API standards across the banking and fintech ecosystem would make integration with the national payment infrastructure much easier and more efficient.
Ms. Arthur explained that GhIPSS intended to lead collaboration with banks and fintechs to resolve challenges surrounding connectivity, integration, and governance. The goal, she said, was to develop nationally accepted technical and governance standards that will enable the Bank of Ghana (BoG) to implement forward-looking policies in support of digital financial transformation.
Ms. Arthur also underscored the importance of a shared digital identity layer that would sit on top of Ghana's payments ecosystem to enable authentication and secure access across platforms. According to her, such a shared identity system-integrated with open banking APIs-would provide a trusted framework for citizens to access multiple financial and government services digitally.
Echoing the call for open banking standards, Chief Product and Services Officer at MML, Sylvia Otuo-Acheampong, said that open APIs represented the future of financial technology integration and collaboration. She explained that MTN MobileMoney already operated an open API platform that allowed partners to connect and build services on top of its infrastructure.
Ms. Otuo-Acheampong noted that MTN MobileMoney has engaged multiple fintech partners this year, aiming to expand financial access through applications that rely on API integration. However, she cautioned that not all fintechs were prepared to adopt API-based service delivery, which remained a key challenge in scaling digital financial products.
Adding a policy perspective, Selorm Branttie, Technology Policy Analyst and Vice-President of the IMANI Center for Policy and Education, argued that open banking APIs could solve long-standing structural and operational challenges in Ghana's financial services sector. According to him, open APIs would enhance trust, enable faster product innovation, and ensure better responsiveness to market needs.
Mr. Branttie further noted that such harmonization would not only make financial integration easier but also enhance consumer protection, data privacy, and cybersecurity oversight. This would position Ghana as a trusted digital finance hub capable of attracting investment, scaling fintech exports, and enabling regional payment interoperability within ECOWAS.
The consensus from the discussion was clear: Ghana's fintech growth depends on a unified open banking API framework supported by national standards, regulatory coordination, and real-time settlements.
