27 July 2026 · Wycord
Open banking and BaaS in Nigeria: the verified APIs
Nigeria's CBN open banking framework has produced two distinct infrastructure categories: APIs that read financial data from existing banks, and APIs that let you embed accounts, cards, and wallets into your own product. Here is what is verified and how to choose.
fintech
Nigeria's Central Bank published its open banking operational guidelines in 2023. Since then, a clear set of infrastructure layers has emerged for developers building financial products. The verified options in the Wycord registry fall into two categories: APIs that access financial data from a user's existing bank account, and APIs that let you issue accounts, cards, and wallets inside your own product.
Getting the category right before choosing a provider saves significant integration time.
The two layers
Data access: You want to read a user's bank account, verify income, pull transaction history, or initiate a one-time payment. The provider connects to the user's existing bank. You do not hold funds.
Embedded banking (BaaS): You want your product to function as the bank. You issue virtual accounts, cards, or wallets under your own brand, backed by a licensed Nigerian bank through the provider's infrastructure.
These categories sometimes overlap, but starting with the distinction prevents architectural confusion.
Data access: Mono
Mono is Nigeria's primary open banking data layer. It connects to banks in Nigeria, Ghana, and South Africa via its Connect widget, which users complete through OAuth. Once linked, you can pull account balances, transaction history, statement data, and identity fields.
Mono also added payment products: DirectPay for one-time bank transfers, and DirectDebit for recurring mandates using the CBN's Global Standing Instruction framework. The company was acquired by Flutterwave in January 2026 and continues operating independently.
Tooling available in the Wycord registry:
- REST API with sandbox environment
@mono.co/connect.jsSDK for the account-linking widget- Mono MCP: a community MCP server with 12 tools for AI agent access to open banking data
Primary use cases: credit risk assessment, income verification, recurring payment collection, KYC enrichment during onboarding.
Wycord: wycord.com/resource/mono
Embedded banking: issuing accounts, cards, and wallets
When your product needs to hold funds or issue payment instruments, you use a BaaS provider. These sit on top of licensed Nigerian commercial banks and handle the licensing and compliance layer on your behalf.
Anchor
Anchor covers the broadest scope in the registry: savings accounts, virtual accounts, card issuance, payment processing, credit products, and savings instruments. It partners with CBN-licensed banks and manages the associated compliance requirements.
Anchor also ships an official MCP server, making its API documentation queryable by AI coding assistants and agents.
Wycord: wycord.com/resource/anchor
Maplerad
Maplerad combines card issuing, NGN and USD virtual accounts, collections, outbound transfers, FX conversion, cryptocurrency, bill payments, and identity verification in a single API. Access requires approval. Official SDKs exist for Node.js and Go.
Wycord: wycord.com/resource/maplerad
Miden
Miden (Y Combinator Winter 2024, founded 2022) is an issuer-processor and banking stack for Sub-Saharan Africa. It supports NGN and USD virtual cards, business accounts, Wallet-as-a-Service, collections, and transfers. Dual-currency support from launch makes it a practical option for products that need both local and dollar-denominated balances. Access is approval-based.
Wycord: wycord.com/resource/miden
Sudo Africa
Sudo Africa focuses narrowly on virtual card issuing. If cards are the only instrument your product requires, this is a simpler integration surface than a full BaaS stack.
Wycord: wycord.com/resource/sudo-africa
Business banking with API access
Two providers give you programmatic access to business bank accounts rather than issuing new accounts or instruments from scratch.
Brass is backed by Wema Bank and Titan Trust Bank. It offers business bank accounts with a composable API and sandbox, positioned for fast-growing companies that want programmatic control over treasury operations.
Lenco exposes an API over its business accounts: balances, transaction history, virtual account creation, automated disbursements, bill payments, and POS terminal management. Its focus is automating business cash flow rather than embedding banking into a consumer product.
Wycord: wycord.com/resource/brass | wycord.com/resource/lenco
Banking middleware: OnePipe
OnePipe sits between fintechs and Nigerian commercial banks, providing a single API gateway to multiple banks. If your product needs to route transactions across bank rails without building individual bank integrations, OnePipe handles that connectivity and compliance layer.
Wycord: wycord.com/resource/onepipe
The regulatory backdrop
The Open Banking Nigeria API Standard defines four API categories for the ecosystem: Registration, Meta Directory, Data-Inquiry, and Payment initiation. The Open Technology Foundation maintains it in alignment with the CBN's 2023 operational guidelines. The specification is public at docs.openbanking.ng.
Every provider in this list operates within this framework through partnerships with CBN-licensed banks. As a developer, you do not need your own banking license, but you must contract with a regulated intermediary.
Wycord: wycord.com/resource/open-banking-nigeria-api-standard
What to use when
| Need | Provider |
|---|---|
| Read a user's existing bank account (statements, income, identity) | Mono |
| Issue virtual NGN or USD accounts embedded in your product | Anchor, Maplerad |
| Issue cards (virtual or physical) | Miden, Sudo Africa, Anchor, Maplerad |
| Issue both NGN and USD cards from day one | Miden |
| Combine card issuing, FX, crypto, and identity in one integration | Maplerad |
| Route payments across multiple commercial banks via a single gateway | OnePipe |
| Business banking with API access (treasury, disbursements, POS) | Brass, Lenco |
| AI agent that queries BaaS or open banking APIs | Anchor MCP, Mono MCP |
One thing to note
Okra, which pioneered open banking data access in Nigeria, ceased operations in May 2025. If your product depends heavily on the open banking data layer, treating Mono's January 2026 acquisition by Flutterwave as an ongoing factor in vendor risk assessment is reasonable. The regulatory framework and the CBN's open banking standard exist independently of any single provider, which is the intended design.
Browse all verified Nigerian API infrastructure at wycord.com/best/apis-in-nigeria.