Abstract

Despite the fact that Nigeria in recent years is considered to be one of the fastest growing economies in Africa, the country still faces major challenges as a direct result of the activities of firms in the financial services industry. Prior studies on financial service quality improvement reveal a significant gap in the way financial service quality is perceived by customers in Nigeria, coupled with the lack of understanding of the centrality of service quality in the development of a firm’s dynamic capabilities. This paper investigates the impact of socio-cultural factors on Nigerian customers’ perceptions of financial service quality using a Questionnaire Survey of 774 respondents. Factor analysis and Structural equation modelling (SEM) led to the development of a holistic framework comprising of six components for improving the Nigerian financial service quality: digital technology, internal processes, low-cost leadership, streamlining financial service portfolio, communication frequency and staff inter-personal communication skills in the Nigerian context. The major limitation of this study relates to the fact that it focuses only on customers’ perspectives; as such, further studies would use a mix of Questionnaires and In-depth Interviews on a wider range of stakeholders in Nigeria.