For over a decade, Nigeria successfully expanded its financial sector through rapid innovation, biometric identity systems, and modernized payment rails. However, while the country has excelled in providing access, usage has struggled to keep pace. According to Semafor, a significant gap has emerged between how the nation’s digital financial architecture is designed and how users actually experience it. When transactions fail or fraud occurs, the fragmentation of responsibilities among various institutions leaves customers without a clear path to resolution, leading to a quiet erosion of confidence.

Data from the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System highlights this trend, showing that more than 33 million bank accounts were dormant as of March 2025—a sharp increase from under 20 million the previous year. While some of this shift is attributed to regulatory requirements mandating the linkage of accounts to verified identity numbers, the underlying trend of disengagement remains clear. Experts argue that the financial system has effectively reached new users but is failing to turn that initial participation into long-term habits.

This issue reflects a broader failure in the current regulatory model, which often treats a platform-led ecosystem with outdated, institution-led tools. As risk migrates into the spaces between digital institutions, supervisors often remain focused on the health of individual firms rather than the integrity of the system as a whole. Moving forward, policymakers are beginning to recognize that fostering trust is now just as critical as the initial push for access. Without addressing the root causes of customer dissatisfaction, Nigeria’s financial inclusion gains risk stalling permanently.