Nigeria's digital payments process N1.07 quadrillion yearly but trust remains low at 5.4/10 due to service failures

Nigeria's digital financial ecosystem processes over N1.07 quadrillion in electronic payments annually, yet industry leaders rate trust resilience at just 5.4 out of 10 according to a new Bridgforte report. The assessment comes from senior executives across banks, fintechs, payment providers, regulators and development institutions who evaluated the system's resilience.

The report identifies transaction failures and weak dispute resolution as the top threats to confidence—far outweighing concerns about fraud, data privacy or AI. As the report states: "What matters for confidence is not simply whether systems fail, but how they behave when they do." Despite reported fraud losses falling 50% year-on-year to N25.85 billion in 2025, they've actually increased 350% since 2020 due to fewer but more damaging attacks.

The report argues trust must become the foundation of the financial system, not just a tech outcome. It recommends treating identity infrastructure as a public utility, mandating fraud intelligence sharing between institutions, and shifting regulation to outcome-based ecosystem supervision rather than institution-by-institution oversight. For users, this means judging digital services by how they handle failures—not just whether they work. For businesses, prioritizing reliable dispute resolution may build more trust than fraud prevention alone.

SOURCE: https://nairametrics.com/2026/07/29/trust-is-cracking-in-nigerias-n1-07-quadrillion-payment-system/