Interswitch has released its latest industry report, ‘State of UX in Financial Apps: Nigeria Report 2025’,

The report findings said 71 per cent of Nigerians find help options in their financial apps ineffective, making in-app support one of the weakest points in today’s digital banking experience.

Users cited unclear error messages, limited real-time guidance and overly complex interfaces as recurring sources of frustration, Interswitch said.

Using globally recognised usability principles, including those developed by Jakob Nielsen, the study evaluated financial apps against best practices in areas such as system feedback, error prevention, consistency, flexibility and accessibility.

While progress has been made in transparency and reliability, the findings pointed to clear opportunities to design more intuitive, supportive and human-centred experiences.

Beyond user insights, the report incorporated perspectives from product leaders and designers across the financial services ecosystem, reinforcing the importance of collaboration, continuous testing and user-led decision-making in raising UX standards.

The report provided a comprehensive, data-driven assessment of user experience (UX) across Nigeria’s leading financial applications and outlines practical insights to guide the evolution of digital banking and financial services.

Drawing on extensive user research conducted in 2025, the report included evaluations of leading financial apps, surveys of hundreds of users, and in-depth interviews. Nigerians were asked a simple but revealing question: ‘What would you like to see in your bank’s app?’

Their responses, the survey said, pointed to rising expectations around speed, clarity, transparency, personalisation, trust and effective in-app support.

As a long-standing infrastructure provider connecting banks, fintechs, merchants and consumers, and also, considering the central role it plays in the provision of mobile financial services (MFS) within the ecosystem, Interswitch brings a unique ecosystem-wide perspective to the analysis.

This enabled the company to identify patterns in how users interact with financial apps at scale and to highlight systemic strengths, gaps, and opportunities shaping the digital finance experience.

Speaking on the release, the Executive Vice President, Group Marketing and Communications of Interswitch, Cherry Eromosele, said: “User experience is no longer a cosmetic layer in financial services; it is the product itself.

As digital channels become the primary way people engage with financial institutions, trust, simplicity and reliability are what truly differentiate one platform from another.

“This report reflects real user voices and rigorous analysis and is intended to help banks and fintechs design services people genuinely understand, trust, and enjoy using. Improving experience is essential to deepening inclusion and sustaining the next phase of digital finance growth.”

The report finds that while core transactions such as transfers generally perform better than other tasks, significant usability challenges remain across bill payments, airtime purchases, error handling, and in-app support.