Emma Okonji
As the country celebrates 2026 Customer Service Week, the Nigeria Customer Service Index (NCSI) Group has released its 2025 report on the state of customer service in Nigeria.
According to the report, customer satisfaction score hits all-time high at 71 per cent amid service quality decline in key sectors, as E-commerce, Real Estate and Telecommunications emerged best sectors, among the 12 sectors surveyed by the report.
The 2025 report, which is the third in its series since its debut in 2023, presented a contrasting yet predictable outcomes with resilient performance amid wide service quality decline.
Powered by the West Africa Association of Customer Service Professionals (WAACSP), the report is a national benchmark of customer satisfaction, service delivery and consumer sentiment across 12 major economic sectors.
The report, which was jointly signed by the Head, Media & Communications, NCSI Group, Orode Jennifer, and Team Lead, NCSI Group, Anozie Christian, is a template that offers organisations a practical basis for comparing performance, understanding changing expectations and directing service-improvement investments.
Using a structured, web-based questionnaire, quantitative research and random sampling, the 2025 survey gathered 21,387 responses, rating over 1,500 organisations, covering all 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The report said respondents evaluated their experiences across customer experience dimensions including trust, professionalism, competence, complaint resolution, ease of doing business, processes and procedures, staff engagement, and customer-focused innovation.
Key findings of the report showed that the national NCSI benchmark stood at 71 per cent, with nine of the 12 sectors recording lower scores than the previous reporting period.
E-commerce led the sector performance at 75 per cent, rising 15 percentage points from 2024, followed by Real Estate at 72 per cent, up 10 points, while Telecommunications posted modest positive growth of one point.
The sharpest contractions were recorded in Transportation (-13 points), Power (-10 points) and the Public Sector (-10 points). Public Sector and Power recorded the lowest scores overall, at 53 per cent and 51 per cent, respectively. Customer trust was the number-one priority in every sector, ranging from 71 per cent in Power to 90 per cent in E-commerce. Hospitality recorded the strongest positive public impression at 69 per cent, while negative sentiment was highest in the Public Sector (44 per cent) and Power (43 per cent).
From the performance scorecard, the Military Hospital Kaduna came top in the public healthcare subsector, while Stanbic IBTC came top in the banking subsector, upstaging Wema Bank (1st in 2024) to 3rd, while FCMB joined in at 2nd place.
Slot moved to the top spot in the E-commerce sector, as did BetKing in the sports/entertainment sector.
MTN (GSM), OPay (fintech), Eko Hotels (hospitality), Covenant University (private education), Ibom Air (aviation), Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) Ile-Ife (public universities) all maintained their top spot from the 2024 report.
Giving the performance scorecard for 2025, NCSI and WAACSP recommended that organisations prioritise trust-building, faster complaint resolution and consistent service delivery especially in the public sector and power. They also called for hybrid customer-service strategies that combine digital convenience with reliable traditional support.
The report advised that organisations could use the index to benchmark performance year over year, identify the service dimensions that most need attention and sequence investments in frontline training, transparent processes and responsive customer channels. For stronger future comparisons, the report also pointed to the value of broader participation outside Lagos and Abuja.
From the participation profile, the report explained that financial services and telecommunications generated the largest response volumes, although every sector saw year-on-year growth in participation, adding that Enugu, Oyo and Rivers states are among the next leading locations.
The report however noted that concentration in Lagos and Abuja, uneven response volumes and unmet quotas in some sectors should be considered when interpreting results and planning future sampling.