Open Space Unveils “Ethical Finance” Platform To Close Nigeria’s Financial Inclusion Gap
By Sunday Etuka
Nigerian fintech firm, Open Space Financial Services Limited, has introduced what it describes as Africa’s first AI-powered ethical financial infrastructure platform, aiming to bring underserved individuals, businesses and investors into a single digital finance ecosystem.
The announcement was made on Tuesday at a press conference in Abuja themed “Advancing Financial Inclusion Through Ethical Finance & Innovation,” where company executives outlined a strategy combining Artificial Intelligence (AI), Open Banking, Embedded Finance and Shariah Compliant Financial Structures.
Nigeria continues to face significant inclusion challenges, with roughly 26 percent of adults still lacking access to formal financial services, even as digital and real time payment adoption has expanded rapidly.
The federal government and the Central Bank of Nigeria have set a target of 95 percent financial inclusion by 2028.
Open Space Chief Executive Officer Titus Adakole Ikeh told attendees the platform was built to make finance more accessible and meaningful rather than simply digitizing existing services.
According to him, Open Space was founded on the belief that financial innovation should ultimately serve a much bigger purpose than transactions.
“It should help people make better decisions, create opportunities, build businesses, acquire assets, grow wealth and improve the quality of their lives,” he said. “This conviction is reflected in our vision to empower humanity through disruptive innovation and trust capital to create shared prosperity.”
He said the company’s new ethical finance offerings center on transparency, fairness and shared economic value rather than interest based lending.
Among the products introduced are Murabaha, a cost plus asset sale structure; Ijarah, an asset leasing arrangement; Diminishing Musharakah, a partnership model that transfers ownership gradually to customers; and Mudaraba, an investment structure in which Open Space manages customer capital and shares profits under a pre agreed ratio.
Chief Technology Officer Ololade Otayemi said the platform runs on a “Single Customer Financial Core” architecture linking a unified customer information file, wallet engine and investment pool engine, with AI and machine learning layered on top to support fraud detection, personalized experiences and portfolio monitoring.
Chief Operating Officer Oscar Ede said the company’s operational focus is on making each financial structure understandable and dependable for customers, with governance oversight spanning risk management, legal compliance, internal audit and a Shariah Advisory Committee.
Shariah advisor Zubair Mughal, speaking on behalf of AlHuda Centre of Islamic Banking and Economics, situated the launch within a broader continental trend.
He noted that global Islamic finance assets approached six trillion dollars in 2024, and that Nigeria’s non-interest finance industry had grown to roughly 5.77 trillion naira by 2025, according to industry reporting.
He described Open Space’s entry into the space, along with its stated plans to pursue non-interest financing licenses and eventual Sukuk issuance, as a positive development for Nigeria’s ethical finance ecosystem.
Company officials said the platform is intended to serve individuals, small businesses, entrepreneurs and institutions across sectors including agriculture, transport, healthcare, education and renewable energy, with further product expansion planned as the ecosystem scales.
