In Nigeria today, the real battleground for financial institutions is not just trust, it is experience.

The 2024 KPMG West Africa Banking Industry Customer Experience Survey and Zapio’s recent study on trust in Nigeria’s financial services show a profound shift: while traditional banks maintain a marginal trust advantage (48% vs. Fintechs’ 30%), Fintechs are dominating actual usage. Nearly half of Nigerians (48%) now rely on Fintechs for their day-to-day financial activities, even when they do not fully trust them.

This paradox – high usage but lower trust, underscores a wake-up call: trust alone is no longer enough. In a climate of economic strain, digital disruption, and shifting consumer expectations, only those who deliver intensely reliable, frictionless, emotionally resonant, and instinctively usable experiences will win the loyalty war.

The Experience Gap: What customers are really saying?

According to KPMG, across the Six Pillars of Customer Experience (CX), Nigerian banks scored highest in Expectations but consistently underperformed in Resolution – the ability to recover from poor experiences. In both retail and SME segments, Personalisation also emerged as a weak link, suggesting that many “personalised” services still feel generic or transactional.

Contrasting this with leading Fintechs like OPay, PalmPay, Kuda and Moniepoint, whose strengths lie in intuitive mobile apps, real-time transactions, and swift resolution. Their growth is fuelled by what consumers perceive as experience reliability, not legacy credibility. “My experience with OPay for the last six months has been seamless… issues are resolved quickly,” one respondent said in the KPMG report.

Meanwhile, Zapio’s findings reveal why Fintechs resonate, especially with younger, educated Nigerians. For 36% of Fintech-trusters, convenience was the key driver. For banks, security ruled at 61%, a strength that Fintechs have yet to consistently replicate.

Economic Context: Friction makes or breaks experience

Inflation, cash shortages, and fuel price hikes have pushed consumers to optimize every Naira. Over 70% of Nigerians now consider price their most crucial factor in making financial decisions. Airtime, data, and food dominate household spending, and half of Nigerians are now living paycheck-to-paycheck. In this environment, every failed transaction, every minute of app downtime, every call centre delay becomes a deal-breaker.

With 83% of consumers visiting agency banking outlets at least once a month and a surge in mobile-first financial habits, the lesson is clear – omnichannel consistency, not omnichannel presence, is what matters.

What banks must do differently –

1. Fix the “Resolution” problem
   Poor complaint handling remains the retail banking sector’s weakest point. Banks must overhaul their service recovery models – moving from reactive apologies to predictive resolution using sentiment analysis and real-time feedback loops.
2. Deliver true personalization
   Customers are tired of being treated like account numbers. Use behavioural data to tailor services, messages, and financial advice based on real-life contexts, not just broad segments.
3. Prioritize digital simplicity
   The top-rated banks in KPMG’s survey (Stanbic IBTC, FCMB, UBA) were praised for app improvements and proactive support. Banks must prioritise UI/UX, mobile uptime, and the simplicity of onboarding and transacting.
4. Compete on empathy, not just efficiency
   The US KPMG CX report shows empathy is now the top predictor of loyalty. Nigerian banks must embed empathy into their culture, design, and even AI deployments, ensuring every touchpoint communicates understanding, not just competence.

For Fintechs: From disruption to institutional maturity

Fintechs, while agile, still face a trust deficit. Twenty-two percent of consumers surveyed by Zapio trust neither banks nor Fintechs. To move from adoption to advocacy, Fintechs must:

• Build security narratives as powerful as their UI stories.
• Broaden inclusion by designing for older and less educated users.
• Foster customer education through transparency, not just efficiency.

Also, Fintechs must anticipate the regulatory spotlight. Embedding resilience, compliance, and customer protection into their core processes will become non-negotiable.

A Shared Future: The case for collaboration

Nigeria’s financial future is not a zero-sum game between banks and Fintechs. Instead, it requires strategic collaboration:

• Open banking APIs to enable seamless data sharing and ecosystem integration.
• Co-branded products that merge Fintech agility with bank-grade assurance.
• Unified CX standards anchored on the Six Pillars – Integrity, Resolution, Expectations, Time & Effort, Personalisation, and Empathy.

The regulatory landscape, especially with initiatives like digital public infrastructure and consumer protection reforms, is fertile for such alliances.

Experience is the new currency

In a volatile economy, trust can falter. But experience endures.

Whether you are a Fintech, rewriting the rules or a bank protecting decades of equity, your future depends on how customers feel when they engage with you. Seamless processes, empowered staff/agents, empathetic chatbots, reliable apps – these are no longer “nice-to-haves.” They are the price of admission.

In Nigeria’s evolving financial sector, the winners will not be those who shout the loudest; but those who listen, learn, and deliver consistently brilliant experiences.