A new report by the Bridgforte Centre for Global Impact has warned that while digital finance has expanded rapidly across Africa, public confidence in the system has not kept pace, calling for trust to be treated as a critical pillar of financial stability.
The report, Trust Architecture in Platform-Led Finance, was launched during a global virtual dialogue attended by more than 400 participants, including central bankers, regulators, financial institutions, fintech executives, consumer advocates, researchers and development partners.
The study argues that the next phase of financial inclusion will depend not only on expanding access to digital financial services but also on strengthening trust across the entire financial ecosystem.
According to the report, senior financial sector leaders who participated in Bridgforte’s Executive Table in Lagos in February rated the resilience of trust in Nigeria’s platform-led financial ecosystem at 5.4 out of 10. A separate poll conducted during the report’s global launch produced a similar score of 5.7, suggesting broad consensus that confidence is lagging behind the rapid growth of digital finance.
Delivering the keynote address, Deputy Governor of the South African Reserve Bank, Nomfundo Tshazibana, described trust and confidence as essential economic infrastructure, stressing that resilient financial systems are built on credible institutions, sound governance, effective collaboration and sustained public confidence.
Founder of Bridgforte and former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Aishah N. Ahmad, said customers experience the financial system as an interconnected whole rather than as individual institutions.
‘Trust is not a communications exercise. It is a governance outcome, and it must be deliberately designed,’ she said.
To strengthen confidence, the report introduced the Bridgforte Trust Architecture Framework, which identifies five pillars for building resilient financial systems: infrastructure integrity, institutional accountability, technology governance, ecosystem coordination and cultural confidence.
According to the report, these pillars operate across relationships between consumers and financial institutions, among institutions themselves, and between regulators and the institutions they supervise.
The research found that confidence in digital finance depends as much on operational performance as on technology. Participants identified transaction reliability and effective dispute resolution as the strongest drivers of trust, noting that public confidence is often shaped by how institutions respond when systems fail.
The report therefore recommends greater coordination across the financial ecosystem rather than isolated improvements by individual organisations.
As part of its next phase of work, Bridgforte announced the establishment of the Trust Lab, a long-term research, dialogue and measurement initiative designed to deepen understanding of how trust is built, weakened and restored in platform-led financial systems.
Ahmad said the Trust Lab would provide sustained attention to trust in the same way policymakers have historically focused on financial stability and financial inclusion, supporting evidence-based approaches to strengthening confidence in digital finance.