Sterling Bank is celebrating the first anniversary of its Zero Transfer Fees policy, which has returned over ₦1.6 billion directly to customers since its launch on April 1, 2025.
The initiative, implemented on Sterling’s digital platform, OneBank, eliminated transfer charges, making the bank the first major Nigerian financial institution to waive revenue from customer online transactions.
In a statement made available to PUNCH Online on Wednesday, the bank’s Chief Executive Officer, Abubakar Suleiman, 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.”
Sterling Bank said millions of customers, including individuals, small businesses, and digital-first users, have benefited from fee-free transfers over the past 12 months. The policy has also driven increased transaction volumes, deeper financial inclusion, and stronger engagement with formal banking systems.
The bank attributed its ability to sustain the initiative to a multi-year digital transformation strategy, which included replacing legacy systems with a homegrown core banking platform supported by a scalable private cloud environment.
Suleiman added, “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.”
Chief Marketing Officer, Donatus Okpako, described the anniversary as both a milestone and a signal of the bank’s future plans.
“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. The ₦1.6 billion represents real relief, real impact, and a rebalancing in favour of the customer. That principle will continue to guide what we build next,” Okpako said.
Sterling Bank said it will continue to expand offerings across payments, savings, and credit, maintaining a focus on improving financial outcomes and widening access for Nigerians.
The bank added that the Zero Transfer Fees policy has sparked broader conversations around pricing transparency and customer value in Nigeria’s financial services sector.
As Sterling Bank enters the second year of the initiative, the institution reaffirmed its commitment to deepening investment in technology, expanding access, and raising the standard for customer expectations in banking.
