Firm Introduces Ethical Finance To Deepen Financial Inclusion

Open Space has introduced an ethical finance offering that is built around shariah-compliant financing and investment structures, while seeking new ways to widen access to capital, investment and asset ownership among underserved customers.

At the unveiling in Abuja, chief executive officer, Titus Adakole Ikeh said the initiative was designed to link financial services more closely with productive economic activity and transparent financial relationships.

The offering covers asset financing, leasing, gradual ownership and investment.

According to Open Space, the commercial proposition will depend on customer demand, pricing, risk management, regulatory compliance and confidence in the underlying financial structures.

In February 2026, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) approved the Bank of Industry’s non-interest banking window which has opened doors for institutional interest in the segment.

Ikeh said the company viewed ethical finance as than a product for customers specifically seeking shariah-compliant services.

He said transparency, accountability and responsible deployment of capital could appeal to customers regardless of background.

“Fairness, transparency, accountability and trust are not merely concepts associated with Ethical Finance. They are values that sit at the heart of the kind of institution we want Open Space to become.

“Ethical Finance gives us an opportunity to respond to them through structures that place transparency, responsibility and economic participation at the centre.

“The real measure of Open Space will never be the number of products we have on our platform. It will be the number of lives we are able to positively influence through those products,” Ikeh said.

Chief technology officer, Ololade Otayemi said the technology architecture supporting the offering was built around a Single customer financial core, combining a unified customer information file, wallet engine and investment pool engine.

Artificial intelligence and machine learning are being incorporated for customer analytics, behavioural monitoring, anomaly detection, portfolio monitoring and personalised financial experiences.

The technology framework includes reconciliation, audit trails, segregation of duties, transaction monitoring, liquidity management and profit calculations.

“Our objective from the technology side has been very clear: to remove complexity from the customer experience while building the depth of infrastructure required to support sophisticated financial products securely, intelligently and at scale.

Financial technology requires a very high level of trust, and that trust must be supported by technology.

Ultimately, our responsibility as a technology team is to make complexity invisible to the customer while maintaining sophistication where it matters,” Otayemi said.

Earlier, chief operating officer, Oscar Ede said the operational challenge would be ensuring that the principles of each financial structure were reflected consistently in customer interactions.

He said the company was focusing on clarity around pricing, ownership, profit-sharing arrangements and customer obligations.

Ede said governance covering risk management, legal and compliance, internal audit, operations and Shariah oversight would form part of the framework.

“Accessibility begins with simplicity. ethical finance must be understandable to the person using it, practical for the business that needs it and dependable throughout the life of the relationship.

Each structure carries specific contractual, operational and governance requirements.

Ultimately, our measure of success will not be how sophisticated our structures appear on paper. It will be whether a customer can access the right financial solution, understand the relationship they are entering, receive the service they were promised and feel confident that Open Space is managing that relationship responsibly,” Ede said.