Nigeria is to lift a ban on foreign takeovers of its banks, breaking a decades-old legacy of protectionism to open Africa's biggest untapped market for financial services to international competition.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Lamido Sanusi, the new governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, said he would break with his predecessor's aversion to foreign ownership by encouraging international banks to make acquisitions as part of a wider plan to bolster confidence in Nigeria's financial system.