Four Nigerian banks processed $208 billion in mobile transactions in 2025

This is Follow the Money, our weekly series that unpacks the earnings, business, and scaling strategies of African fintechs, financial institutions, companies, and governments. A new edition drops every Monday.

Fintechs like OPay and PalmPay built their dominance on reliability and speed.

For years, failed transfers on bank apps and downtime pushed millions of Nigerians toward these fintech apps for everyday payments. Their adoption accelerated during the cash crunch triggered by the failed naira redesign policy of 2022.

However, after years of heavy investment in core infrastructure, traditional banks are beginning to close the gap on speed and reliability, and it is starting to show in their numbers.

With reliability no longer a clear edge, cheaper fees, better user experience, and value-added services such as tailored credit will become more important as banks and fintechs look for new ways to retain customers.

Guaranty Trust Holding Company Plc (GTCO), one of Nigeria’s largest financial services groups, processed ₦72.4 trillion ($52.66 billion) in transactions across its digital platforms, GTWorld and GAPS/GAPSLite, in 2025, a 7.89% increase from 2024.

The bank recorded a 7,814.8% surge in pay-with-transfer transactions to ₦10.4 trillion ($7.56 billion) in 2025.

“Pay-with-transfer volumes continue to increase, reflecting strong user adoption driven by speed and convenience (2025: ₦10.4 trillion ($7.56 billion); 2024: ₦131.5 billion ($95.64 million)), positioning it as one of the fastest-growing payment methods,” the bank said.

Other tier-1 banks are seeing similar momentum.

United Bank for Africa has grown its mobile banking transaction value by 93.09% since 2023 to ₦51.65 trillion ($37.57 trillion) in 2025. Zenith Bank’s mobile banking transactions rose 107.53% over the same period to ₦104.14 trillion ($75.74 billion).

First Bank of Nigeria processed ₦58 trillion ($42.18 billion) in mobile banking transactions in the first nine months of 2025, a 26.09% increase year-on-year. Together, these banks processed ₦286.19 trillion ($208.15 billion).

Instant payments rose by 78.3% to ₦1.07 quadrillion ($778.22 billion) in 2024, according to the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS), and reached ₦284.99 trillion ($207.28 billion) in the first quarter of 2025 alone.

According to Worldpay, a global payment company, Nigeria recorded the steepest drop in cash transactions globally over the past decade, with a 59% decline between 2014 and 2024.

GTCO, UBA, and Zenith have collectively invested ₦415.36 billion ($302.09 million) in core technology upgrades and infrastructure since 2024, according to their financial statements.

In 2024, several major banks overhauled their core banking systems.

GTBank migrated from Basis to Finacle, a core banking platform developed by Infosys. Zenith Bank switched to Flexcube by Finastra, replacing its legacy Phoenix system.

These transitions led to outages that affected millions of customers at the time. But they also addressed long-standing issues around failed transactions, slow processing, and system instability.

Increased usage of digital channels is also translating to a surge in e-business income.

GTCO has generated ₦121.29 billion ($88.22 million) in e-banking income since 2024. First Bank earned ₦167.92 billion ($122.13 million), while UBA recorded ₦461.94 billion ($335.97 million) and Zenith Bank ₦169.18 billion ($123.05 million) over the same period.

For customers, this shift reduces the need to juggle between bank apps and fintech platforms for everyday transfers. Where users once deposited lump amounts in banks but relied on fintechs for everyday transfers, improving reliability on bank apps means more transactions can happen in one place.

Also, as banks close the gap on speed and uptime, pricing may become the main differentiator. Ultimately, transfers will become less about which app works and more about which app offers the best value or additional services, from credit to savings and rewards.

For fintechs, the advantage that drove their growth, speed, and reliability is starting to wane.

As banks fix their apps and reduce failures, fintechs risk losing the high-frequency transactions that made them indispensable for everyday payments.

That puts pressure on their core model, which depends on volume and engagement, even if users still keep most of their money in traditional banks.

GTCO, First Bank, UBA, and Zenith Bank had ₦79.72 trillion ($57.98 billion) in customer deposits at the end of 2025.

The next phase for fintech could be less about acquiring users and more about keeping them. To do that, fintechs may need to deepen trust through better dispute resolution, stronger customer support, and, in some cases, physical or hybrid touchpoints.

At the same time, regulation is beginning to close the structural gap. With the CBN pushing leading fintechs toward National Microfinance Bank licences, they are being drawn into the same realities as banks, including higher compliance costs, physical presence, and tighter oversight.

As speed becomes standard, fintechs will have to compete less on execution and more on what they can build on top of payments, from credit to financial services, while managing a cost structure that may increasingly start to look like that of the institutions they once disrupted.

Note: exchange rate used: ₦1,374.94/$