. Ikeh: Finance must move beyond transactions to investment, shared prosperity
James Emejo in Abuja
Open Space Financial Services Limited has unveiled its Ethical Finance proposition, combining Shariah-compliant financial structures with artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and digital technology in a bid to widen access to capital, productive assets and investment opportunities.
The company said the new model was designed not merely as an alternative financial product, but as part of a broader attempt to reshape the relationship between finance, economic participation and wealth creation, particularly for individuals and businesses underserved by conventional financial services.
Speaking at a media briefing press in Abuja, Chief Executive of Open Space, Titus Adakole Ikeh, said the company was seeking to move financial services beyond transactions to helping people make better financial decisions, build businesses, acquire assets and create sustainable wealth.
He said the initiative was founded on the conviction that financial innovation should serve a broader social and economic purpose, stressing that financial inclusion should mean more than opening bank accounts or providing access to digital platforms.
According to him, meaningful inclusion should enable small businesses to acquire productive equipment, individuals to work towards asset ownership and customers to save and invest in line with their values.
Ikeh explained that the Ethical Finance proposition would deploy structures including Murabaha, Ijarah, Diminishing Musharakah and Mudaraba to provide financing, asset acquisition and investment opportunities without relying on conventional interest-based lending.
He said under Murabaha, Open Space would acquire an asset requested by a customer and subsequently sell it to the customer at a disclosed cost plus an agreed profit, creating a trade-based transaction rather than an interest-bearing loan.
Under Ijarah, he explained, the company would acquire an approved asset and lease it to a customer for an agreed rental over a specified period.
He said, “This structure is asset-backed and designed to support business growth, financial inclusion and sustainable economic development.”
Ikeh further explained that Diminishing Musharakah would provide a pathway to asset ownership through a partnership between Open Space and the customer.
Under the arrangement, both parties would jointly acquire an asset, with the customer progressively purchasing Open Space’s ownership units until the customer becomes the sole owner.
He said Mudaraba would extend the model to savings and investment, with customers providing capital while Open Space manages investments in Shariah-compliant opportunities, with realised profits shared according to a pre-agreed ratio.
The CEO stressed that the proposition was not intended exclusively for customers seeking Shariah-compliant products, arguing that its emphasis on transparency, accountability, fairness and trust represented universal financial needs.
“For us, Ethical Finance is not about creating a narrow product offering for a particular demographic. People want to know what they are entering into. They want clarity about the terms of their financial relationships. They want to understand how their money is being deployed and how value is being created,” he said.
He said businesses equally needed access to capital that could help them acquire productive assets and expand sustainably.
Ikeh said the company’s Ijarah proposition, for instance, had been designed to serve individuals, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), professionals, transport operators, healthcare providers, educational institutions, agricultural enterprises and renewable energy users seeking access to productive assets.
He noted that Africa’s enormous economic potential could not be fully realised if financial systems continued to be designed primarily around people already adequately served by existing institutions.
The Open Space chief executive said, “We cannot build the future of finance by designing only for those who are already well served by the system
“We have to design for the entrepreneur who has an idea but needs the right structure to grow it, the family seeking to build assets over time, the business that needs equipment to increase its productive capacity and the individual who wants financial services that are consistent with deeply held values.”
According to him, the company’s ultimate measure of success would not be the number of products on its platform, but the businesses it helped grow, assets customers acquired, opportunities created and trust earned.
AI, automation to drive personalised, transparent financial services
On the technology architecture supporting the initiative, Open Space’s Chief Technology Officer, Ololade Otayemi, said the company was combining ethical financial structures with an integrated digital infrastructure capable of delivering sophisticated financial services without transferring the underlying complexity to customers.
Otayemi said the platform was built around a Single Customer Financial Core, incorporating a unified Customer Information File, Core Wallet Engine and Investment Pool Engine.
He explained that the architecture would enable customers to operate transaction wallets, investment wallets and goal-based wallets within one connected ecosystem rather than maintaining fragmented financial identities across different products.
According to him, customers would be able to set financial goals, select investment options, manage liquidity and monitor their wealth through a single interface, while the underlying technology handles wallet operations, investment pools, profit calculations and liquidity requirements.
He said the company’s Mudaraba architecture would incorporate investment-engine capabilities, Profit Sharing Ratio logic, liquidity management and withdrawal scheduling.
Otayemi added that automation would be deployed across critical customer processes, including digital onboarding, Know-Your-Customer (KYC) verification, credit and affordability assessment, payment collection, reminders, digital documentation, electronic signatures and customer self-service.
He said the objective was to make the customer experience simple despite the sophistication of the infrastructure supporting it.
“The customer should experience simplicity, speed, transparency and control. Behind that experience should be robust financial architecture, intelligent automation, machine learning, data analytics, security controls, monitoring systems and scalable infrastructure,” he said.
He disclosed that AI and machine learning would also be applied to customer analytics, behavioural patterns, portfolio monitoring, anomaly detection, predictive insights and personalised financial experiences.
The technology roadmap, he said, included AI-driven portfolio monitoring and analytics within Ethical Finance, as well as AI-driven customer analytics for Diminishing Musharakah.