The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has toughened its enforcement stance in 2025, slamming financial institutions with a total of N1.69 billion in penalties for 32 infractions ranging from poor handling of customer complaints to broader regulatory breaches. Of this amount, N430 million arose from 21 sanctions tied directly to complaints management and consumer‑protection failures, including delayed resolution of issues and non‑compliance with CBN directives, while another 11 penalties totaling N1.26 billion were imposed for regulatory breaches and failure to respond to regulatory queries.
The tougher enforcement came amid rising use of the CBN’s complaints platform. The apex bank received 23,129 complaints in 2025, a 10.53% increase over 20,925 cases in 2024, a trend it largely attributed to greater public awareness and confidence in its redress mechanisms rather than worsening service quality. Resolved complaints rose to 18,824, up 9.36% from 17,213 in 2024, highlighting a more active dispute‑resolution process.
Financially, the disputes carried a much bigger weight. Local currency claims jumped to N40.61 billion from N17.13 billion in 2024, while foreign currency claims spiked to $344.2 million from just $1.06 million. Following resolution, affected customers recovered N19.12 billion and $329.3 million in 2025, compared with N9.66 billion and $0.67 million a year earlier, underscoring the growing impact of transaction failures, disputed deductions, excessive charges, delayed reversals, foreign‑exchange disputes and other issues across digital and conventional banking channels.
The sanctions formed part of a wider overhaul of the CBN’s supervisory and market‑conduct framework. In 2025, the bank created a dedicated Compliance Department to tighten oversight of financial crime, market conduct, complaints management, advertising standards, cybersecurity, data protection and corporate governance for institutions under its watch, and to ensure faster responses to consumer grievances. CBN Governor Olayemi Cardoso also disclosed that the apex bank and deposit money banks were reviewing excessive transaction alerts and charges after complaints over confusing debit notifications and unexplained deductions, supported by a quarterly engagement platform involving the CBN’s consumer‑protection team, deposit money banks and the top 10 microfinance banks.
These moves build on earlier efforts, including a 2022 consumer‑protection guide that set out formal procedures for lodging complaints against banks and other financial institutions. More broadly, the CBN’s 2025 reform program continued to focus on price stability and financial‑system resilience through monetary policy adjustments, foreign‑exchange market reforms, liquidity management, macroprudential tools and stronger supervisory oversight.
