Sterling Bank has marked the first anniversary of its disruptive “Zero Transfer Fees” initiative, announcing on Wednesday that the policy has successfully returned over N2bn directly to Nigerian consumers.

The initiative, which launched on 1 April 2025, made Sterling the first major Nigerian bank to completely waive revenue from customer online transactions. One year later, the bank reports that the gamble has fundamentally reshaped the relationship between the institution and its millions of digital users.

Speaking on the milestone, the Chief Executive Officer of Sterling Bank, Abubakar Suleiman, emphasised that the move was a strategic shift in the bank’s core business model.

He said: “We made a deliberate decision to stop charging for the movement of money and to build our model around delivering real value instead. One year on, the outcome has validated both the principle behind that choice and the strength of the model itself.”

Suleiman noted that the ability to sustain such a high-impact policy was not an overnight feat but the result of a multi-year digital overhaul.

“Our transformation was never about technology for its own sake.

It was about building enduring capacity to serve, to scale, and ultimately to deliver more value to our customers. When that capacity matured, we made a conscious decision to return the benefits to the people who make the system work,” he added.

The zero-fee policy, executed via the bank’s OneBank digital platform, has seen rapid adoption among small businesses and digital-first Nigerians. According to the bank, the N2bn saved by customers represents a significant rebalancing of wealth in a sector where transaction fees have long been the industry standard.

Also speaking on the development, the Chief Marketing Officer of Sterling Bank, Donatus Okpako, described the anniversary as a signal to the rest of the financial services sector.

He said: “This initiative has challenged long-held assumptions about how banks create value. We are demonstrating that it is entirely possible to run a strong, commercially sound institution while being fundamentally fair to customers.”

Okpako added that the N2bn milestone is just the beginning of a broader transparency drive.

“The N2bn represents real relief, real impact, and a rebalancing in favour of the customer. That principle will continue to guide what we build next,” he added.

Industry analysts point out that Sterling’s success is largely due to its migration to a homegrown core banking platform and a scalable private cloud environment. By removing legacy costs, the bank has been able to absorb transaction expenses that other lenders still pass on to their users.

As the bank enters its second year of the policy, leadership remains committed to expanding access to credit and savings, doubling down on the zero-fee philosophy to drive deeper financial inclusion across Nigeria.

Nigeria has faced significant inflationary pressures over the past two years. With the Central Bank of Nigeria maintaining a high Monetary Policy Rate, exceeding 27 per cent in late 2024 and 2025 to curb inflation, the cost of credit has skyrocketed.

Sterling Bank’s initiative actually preceded a major regulatory shift. By January 2026, the CBN officially moved to scrap five major bank charges, including certain transfer levies and SMS alert fees, to ease the financial burden on citizens.