Reported by Simon Daniel Yusuph l Journalist at Weng Global
Nigeria’s national customer satisfaction score climbed to a record 71 per cent in 2025, with e-commerce emerging as the country’s highest-performing sector at 75 per cent, while the power sector recorded the lowest score at 51 per cent, according to the 2025 State of Customer Service in Nigeria Report released on September 30, 2026.
The report, published by the Nigeria Customer Satisfaction Index (NCSI) Group and powered by the West Africa Association of Customer Service Professionals (WAACSP), presents a mixed picture of service delivery across the country. Although the national satisfaction benchmark has improved for three consecutive years, nine of the 12 economic sectors assessed recorded lower scores than in the previous reporting period.
The findings highlight a growing divide between sectors where customers report better experiences and essential services where dissatisfaction remains a significant concern. E-commerce and real estate recorded notable improvements, while transportation, electricity and public administration faced substantial declines.
Based on 21,387 responses covering more than 1,500 organisations across Nigeria’s 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, the report provides a nationwide assessment of how consumers perceive service quality, professionalism, trust, complaint resolution and business processes.
E-Commerce Leads Nigeria’s Customer Satisfaction Rankings
E-commerce recorded the highest customer satisfaction score in Nigeria in 2025, reaching 75 per cent after rising by 15 percentage points from 60 per cent in 2024.
The improvement placed the sector ahead of the other industries assessed by the index. Real estate ranked second with 72 per cent, representing a 10-percentage-point increase, while telecommunications recorded a more modest improvement of one percentage point.
According to the report, Slot, Jumia and Konga were the three leading organisations in the e-commerce category.
The result points to the importance of customer experience in Nigeria’s expanding digital marketplace. Online shopping platforms compete by offering consumers convenient access to products, multiple payment options and purchasing processes that reduce the need for physical visits to stores.
However, the report’s overall findings should not be interpreted as proof that every e-commerce business delivers consistently satisfactory service. The sector score represents an aggregate assessment, while individual customers may have different experiences with product quality, delivery arrangements, refunds, payment disputes and after-sales support.
For online retailers, maintaining customer confidence requires more than providing a digital storefront. Consumers also need accurate product descriptions, dependable delivery, transparent pricing, secure transactions and effective channels for resolving complaints.
A strong satisfaction score can therefore serve as a useful indicator of customer perceptions, but continued performance will depend on whether organisations can sustain service quality as competition and consumer expectations evolve.
The findings also identify Slot as the highest-ranked organisation in the e-commerce category, followed by Jumia and Konga. Their positions provide a basis for comparing reported customer experiences within the sector, although the index alone does not establish that every aspect of their operations is superior to those of competitors.
National Customer Satisfaction Has Improved Since 2023
Nigeria’s national customer satisfaction benchmark increased from 61 per cent in 2023 to 67 per cent in 2024 before reaching 71 per cent in 2025.
The progression represents a 10-percentage-point increase over the three-year period.
The improvement suggests that the overall assessment of customer experiences has become more favourable. Nevertheless, the decline recorded across nine sectors in the latest reporting period complicates the picture and indicates that progress has not been evenly distributed.
The national benchmark and individual sector scores measure different aspects of the same service environment. A rising overall score does not necessarily mean that every industry has improved or that consumers are satisfied with all the services they use.
For instance, customers may report positive experiences with online retailers while continuing to face problems with electricity supply, public administration or transportation.
The contrast makes sector-level comparisons particularly important. A national average can provide a broad picture of consumer sentiment, but it may conceal difficulties affecting people who depend on specific services for their livelihoods, education, healthcare and daily activities.
The report’s findings therefore provide two messages for businesses and policymakers: customer satisfaction can improve nationally, but serious service-delivery weaknesses can persist within individual industries.
Understanding these differences is essential when deciding where investment, regulatory attention and operational improvements are most urgently needed.
Power Sector Records the Lowest Satisfaction Score
The power sector ranked last among the 12 sectors assessed, recording a customer satisfaction score of 51 per cent.
The report also identified a 10-percentage-point decline in the sector’s score compared with the previous reporting period.
Electricity is an essential service for households, commercial establishments, schools, hospitals and industrial operations. Its reliability can influence business costs, working hours, household spending and the ability of organisations to provide services.
When electricity customers experience inconsistent supply, billing disputes or difficulties resolving complaints, dissatisfaction can extend beyond the immediate interaction with a service provider.
For small businesses, unreliable electricity may increase the cost of operating generators or other alternative power sources. Households may also face additional expenses when they need backup electricity to support everyday activities.
The report does not establish that every electricity distribution company performed equally poorly. Its overall sector score provides a broad assessment, while the performance of individual organisations may differ.
The index listed Abuja Electricity Distribution Company among the leading organisations in the power category, alongside Ikeja Electric and Enugu Electricity Distribution Company. Their inclusion illustrates the importance of examining individual company performance alongside the broader sector result.
However, the overall score remains a warning for electricity providers and relevant authorities. Improving customer satisfaction requires attention to the service experience, including clear communication, accessible complaint channels, transparent billing and timely responses to customer concerns.
For electricity distribution companies, meaningful progress will also depend on the wider operational conditions affecting supply and service delivery. Customer-service improvements alone cannot resolve every infrastructure or electricity-generation challenge.
The findings consequently reinforce the need to distinguish between problems that individual companies can address directly and wider structural issues requiring coordinated action across the power sector.
Public Sector Satisfaction Remains Low
The public sector recorded a customer satisfaction score of 53 per cent, making it the second-lowest-performing sector in the 2025 index.
Like the power sector, it experienced a decline of 10 percentage points compared with the previous reporting period.
Public institutions play a central role in citizens’ daily lives. Their services can include business registration, regulatory approvals, documentation, tax administration, healthcare and other government-related processes.
When these services are slow, difficult to navigate or unresponsive to complaints, citizens may lose confidence in the institutions responsible for delivering them.
The report identified negative public sentiment at 44 per cent in the public sector, the highest level recorded among the categories highlighted in its findings. The power sector followed at 43 per cent.
These figures underline the importance of trust and responsiveness in services that people cannot always avoid or replace with private alternatives.
Improving public-sector satisfaction requires institutions to examine the practical difficulties citizens encounter when seeking assistance. These may include unclear procedures, lengthy processing times, limited access to information and ineffective mechanisms for resolving complaints.
Digital services can help reduce some of these barriers by allowing citizens to complete transactions remotely, track applications and access information without repeated visits to government offices.
However, digitalisation does not automatically guarantee better service. Systems must be dependable, accessible and supported by staff who can help users when transactions fail or questions arise.
Government institutions must also consider people who have limited internet access, low digital literacy or difficulties using online platforms. Providing reliable in-person assistance alongside digital channels can help prevent modernisation efforts from excluding vulnerable groups.
The report’s findings make public-sector service improvement an important issue for public trust, administrative efficiency and the relationship between citizens and government institutions.
Transportation Records the Sharpest Decline
Transportation recorded the largest decline among the sectors highlighted in the report, falling by 13 percentage points.
Although the available summary identifies the scale of the decline, it does not provide enough detail to attribute the result to a single cause or establish that every transportation subsector experienced the same difficulties.
Customer satisfaction in transportation can be influenced by several aspects of the passenger experience, including reliability, safety, ticketing, scheduling, communication and complaint handling. The relative importance of these factors may differ between road transport, aviation and other services.
For passengers, a transport service is not judged solely by whether a journey takes place. Reliability and the ability to obtain timely information can also shape how customers assess their experience.
For businesses, transportation service quality can influence the movement of workers, products and supplies. Delays and disruptions can increase costs and complicate planning, particularly for companies operating across multiple locations.
The 13-percentage-point decline therefore deserves further examination by transport operators and relevant authorities.
However, the index result should not be treated as a direct measurement of every operational problem within the sector. More detailed sector and organisation-level data would be needed to identify the principal causes of dissatisfaction and determine which interventions would produce the greatest improvement.
The report’s broader message is that service providers need to move beyond headline performance figures and examine the specific experiences that drive customers’ assessments.
Customer Trust Emerges as a Central Priority
Customer trust was identified as the leading priority across all 12 sectors covered by the index.
Its reported importance ranged from 71 per cent in the power sector to 90 per cent in e-commerce.
The results suggest that trust remains central to how consumers assess businesses and public institutions. Customers want to believe that organisations will deliver the services promised, communicate honestly, treat them fairly and respond when something goes wrong.
In e-commerce, trust can influence whether consumers feel comfortable paying for products before delivery, sharing necessary personal information and returning to a platform after completing a transaction.
In the power sector, trust can be affected by the clarity of bills, the handling of complaints and communication about service interruptions.
For public institutions, confidence can depend on whether procedures are transparent, information is accessible and services are delivered consistently.
The report also found that hospitality recorded the strongest positive public impression, at 69 per cent. Meanwhile, negative sentiment was highest in the public sector at 44 per cent and the power sector at 43 per cent.
These results demonstrate why customer satisfaction cannot be reduced to a single interaction or a marketing campaign. Trust develops through repeated experiences, particularly when organisations demonstrate that they can meet expectations and take responsibility for service failures.
Businesses and public institutions seeking to improve their scores must therefore consider the relationship between promises and actual delivery.
Clear communication is important, but it must be accompanied by practical improvements. Organisations that make commitments without delivering them risk deepening dissatisfaction rather than rebuilding confidence.
How the 2025 Survey Was Conducted
The State of Customer Service in Nigeria: 2025 Report was released by the Nigeria Customer Satisfaction Index Group and powered by the West Africa Association of Customer Service Professionals.
The survey collected 21,387 responses covering more than 1,500 organisations across Nigeria’s 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.
According to the published methodology, the study used a structured, web-based questionnaire, quantitative research and random sampling. Respondents assessed their experiences across several dimensions of customer service.
These included trust, professionalism, competence, complaint resolution, ease of doing business, processes and procedures, staff engagement, and customer-focused innovation.
The index is intended to provide a basis for comparing customer satisfaction across economic sectors and examining changes over time.
However, the composition of the respondent pool is important when interpreting the results.
The report noted that Lagos accounted for 9,897 responses, representing 46.75 per cent of the total, while Abuja contributed 2,994 responses, or 14.14 per cent. Together, the two locations accounted for 60.89 per cent of responses.
Other locations, including Enugu, Oyo and Rivers, also contributed to the survey.
The concentration of responses in Lagos and Abuja is a relevant consideration when interpreting the national findings. Although the survey covered all states and the Federal Capital Territory, the distribution of responses was not geographically even.
The report itself identified geographic concentration, uneven response volumes and unmet quotas in some sectors as considerations for interpreting results and planning future sampling.
This does not automatically invalidate the findings. It does, however, underline the importance of examining the sampling design, sector representation and respondent characteristics when using the index to draw conclusions about consumers nationwide.
A larger and more evenly distributed respondent pool could help future editions provide a more detailed understanding of how customer experiences differ between locations, income groups and types of service users.
For organisations using the index to guide business decisions, understanding these methodological considerations is important alongside the headline rankings.
Leading Organisations Across Other Sectors
Beyond e-commerce, the report identified leading organisations in several other industries.
Stanbic IBTC ranked first in the banking category, followed by FCMB and Wema Bank. OPay, Kuda and Paystack were listed among the leading organisations in the fintech and microfinance category.
In telecommunications, MTN, Airtel and Globacom were the leading GSM operators, while FibreOne, Starlink and Smile featured among the leading internet service providers.
Ibom Air and Air Peace were listed among the leading organisations in aviation.
The report also identified Eko Hotels, Chicken Republic and Mega Chicken among the leading hospitality organisations. In public healthcare, Military Hospital Kaduna ranked first, followed by University of Abuja Teaching Hospital and University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Enugu.
The Corporate Affairs Commission, Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, and Federal Inland Revenue Service featured among the leading public-sector organisations listed in the report.
These rankings provide a more detailed picture of the organisations identified as strong performers within particular categories.
However, the results should be understood within the scope of the index. A high customer satisfaction ranking does not necessarily mean that an organisation performs best on every measure of financial strength, technical efficiency, regulatory compliance or operational capacity.
Instead, the rankings offer a customer-experience perspective that can complement other forms of organisational assessment.
For companies seeking to improve their market position, the results may also provide an opportunity to study how customers evaluate competing services and identify areas where better communication, complaint handling and operational consistency could strengthen satisfaction.
What the Findings Mean for Nigerian Businesses
For Nigerian businesses, the report highlights the importance of treating customer experience as an operational priority rather than a secondary responsibility.
Companies often compete through pricing, product features, market reach and promotional activities. However, the experience customers receive before, during and after a transaction can influence whether they remain loyal or choose a competitor.
The strong performance recorded by e-commerce suggests that customer-facing digital businesses can achieve favourable satisfaction results, although the index does not establish that digital delivery alone caused the improvement.
Organisations in other sectors can still learn from the broader emphasis on convenience, responsiveness and trust.
Businesses can begin by reviewing how customers make enquiries, complete transactions, report problems and obtain assistance. Repeated complaints may reveal weaknesses in procedures that are not obvious from internal performance reports.
Complaint resolution is particularly important because service failures are not always avoidable. An organisation’s response can determine whether a dissatisfied customer receives a practical solution or loses confidence in the business.
Companies can also improve transparency by explaining prices, terms, delivery expectations and service limitations clearly.
For organisations operating in essential sectors, customer satisfaction must be considered alongside the reliability and affordability of the service itself.
The report’s findings suggest that improving customer experience requires a combination of better systems, staff competence, transparent communication and consistent service delivery.
Implications for Consumers and the Economy
Customer satisfaction is relevant to the wider economy because households and businesses depend on reliable services to manage their daily activities.
When service providers meet expectations, customers may spend less time resolving disputes, searching for alternatives or correcting avoidable errors.
When services fail, consumers may face additional expenses, delays and uncertainty.
These costs can be particularly significant for smaller businesses, which may have limited resources to absorb disruptions or maintain alternative arrangements.
The contrast between e-commerce and the power sector illustrates the uneven nature of the customer experience across Nigeria’s economy.
A consumer may find it increasingly convenient to purchase goods online while continuing to encounter difficulties with electricity supply or public administration.
Such differences matter because satisfaction with one service cannot fully compensate for problems in another essential area.
The report does not establish a direct causal relationship between customer satisfaction scores and wider economic growth. Nevertheless, its findings provide information that businesses, public institutions and policymakers can use when assessing service delivery.
A stronger customer-service culture could help organisations identify recurring weaknesses, improve communication and make better use of customer feedback.
For public institutions, more responsive service can also contribute to citizens’ confidence in administrative processes.
The central challenge is to translate survey findings into measurable improvements rather than treating a published ranking as an achievement in itself.
Recommendations for Improving Customer Service
The Nigeria Customer Satisfaction Index Group and WAACSP recommended that organisations prioritise trust-building, faster complaint resolution and more consistent service delivery.
They placed particular emphasis on the public and power sectors, which recorded the lowest satisfaction scores in 2025.
The report also called for hybrid customer-service strategies that combine digital convenience with dependable traditional support.
Such an approach recognises that customers have different needs and levels of access to technology. Online platforms can make some transactions faster, but telephone assistance and in-person services may remain necessary when customers encounter complex problems.
Organisations can also establish clearer procedures for handling complaints, monitor the time taken to resolve them and identify recurring issues.
Regular customer feedback can help service providers understand whether improvements are producing meaningful changes in customer experience.
The report further encouraged organisations to use the index to benchmark performance, identify weaknesses and direct investments towards areas requiring improvement.
For future editions, broader participation outside Lagos and Abuja could strengthen the geographical representation of responses and provide a more detailed view of customer experiences across the country.
The recommendations point towards a practical approach: identify service failures, understand why they occur, make targeted improvements and measure whether customers experience a difference.
What Happens Next?
The report provides a benchmark against which organisations can compare their customer satisfaction performance and assess progress in subsequent reporting periods.
The next stage will depend on how businesses, service providers and public institutions respond to the findings.
For e-commerce operators, the challenge will be to maintain customer confidence as the sector develops and competition continues.
For electricity providers and public institutions, improving satisfaction will require closer attention to persistent service problems, complaint resolution and communication with consumers.
Transportation operators also face the task of examining the factors behind the sector’s sharp decline and identifying practical ways to improve the customer experience.
The index does not announce a specific deadline by which these improvements must be completed. Nor does it establish that any individual organisation has already implemented all the recommended changes.
Future survey results will be important in determining whether the reported weaknesses are addressed and whether customer satisfaction improves across the lower-performing sectors.
For now, the 2025 findings present Nigerian organisations with a clear challenge: a record national satisfaction score should not obscure the difficulties experienced by customers in essential industries.
The central test will be whether the figures lead to better service, stronger trust and more effective responses to consumer concerns.
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Sources
- Nigeria Customer Satisfaction Index Group and West Africa Association of Customer Service Professionals — State of Customer Service in Nigeria: 2025 Report and official release, September 30, 2026.
- News Agency of Nigeria — report on Nigeria’s customer satisfaction score reaching 71 per cent.
- BusinessDay — reporting on the national customer satisfaction score and sector performance.
- The Guardian Nigeria — reporting on customer satisfaction, power-sector challenges and public-sector service delivery.
