Sterling Bank Marks One Year of Fee-Free Transfers, Gives Back ₦1.6 Billion

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 introduction.

Launched on April 1, 2025, the initiative removed transfer charges on Sterling’s digital platform, OneBank, making it the first major Nigerian bank to forego revenue from customer online transactions.

In a statement, Sterling 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.”

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Millions of customers have benefited from fee-free transfers over the past 12 months, with uptake increasing among individuals, small businesses, and digital-first users. The policy has also contributed to higher transaction volumes, improved financial inclusion, and stronger engagement with the formal banking system.

Sterling Bank attributes its ability to sustain the policy to a multi-year digital transformation strategy, which included transitioning from legacy systems to 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 direction. 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. 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.”

The bank said it plans to continue expanding offerings across payments, savings, and credit, with a sustained focus on improving financial outcomes and widening access for Nigerians. Sterling Bank also noted that the Zero Transfer Fees policy has influenced broader conversations about pricing transparency and customer value in the Nigerian banking sector.

As the bank enters the second year of the initiative, it reaffirmed its commitment to investing in technology, broadening access, and setting higher expectations for customer experience.