Foreword
Across Ghana and Nigeria, the past twelve months have marked a pivotal moment for the banking sector. While macroeconomic conditions show early signs of stabilisation, customer behaviour reflects continued caution. Trust is being earned more deliberately, and financial decisions are increasingly informed by comparison, experience, and perceived value. Digital channels, now fully embedded in daily life, have become the primary lens through which customers evaluate and engage with their banks.
This report marks the third edition of KPMG in West Africa’s customer experience insights series – our nineteenth in Nigeria and sixth in Ghana - drawing on insights from over 35,000 retail customers, 5,000 SMEs, and 600 corporates. It builds on a long-standing tradition of customer-focused analysis, but does so in a market context that is changing materially. Across both countries, banking services are becoming increasingly accessible and standardised, narrowing experiential differences between providers. As a result, the basis of competition is shifting away from hygiene factors such as basic digital access and transactional reliability, towards experiences that feel relevant, personalised and effort-reducing for increasingly expectation-literate customers.
This year’s research examines how institutions are competing for the customer beyond the basics of customer experience. We explore how banks are responding to a customer base that is more digitally engaged and more confident in benchmarking banking experiences not only against peers, but against fintechs and service leaders across industries. While drawing comparative insights across Ghana and Nigeria, the report also reflects the distinct dynamics shaping each market, including Nigeria’s regulatory momentum around open banking and recapitalisation, and Ghana’s deeply embedded mobile-first banking culture.
We hope the insights in this report inform strategic decision-making and support leaders in designing customer experiences that are intuitive, personalised and human-centred. In a landscape where the basics are assumed, the opportunity belongs to institutions ready to compete – and win – beyond them.
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