Digital Finance Is Growing Fast—But Public Confidence Still Lags | Bridgforte

The rapid growth in digital finance is outpacing public confidence in the financial ecosystem, prompting the Bridgforte Centre for Global Impact to launch a new governance framework and the Trust Lab to strengthen trust in platform-led finance.

The Centre disclosed this yesterday at the unveiling of its flagship policy report, Trust Architecture in Platform-Led Finance, launched during a global online dialogue attended by over 400 central bankers, regulators, financial institutions, fintech leaders, consumer advocates, researchers and development partners.

Speaking at the event, Founder of Bridgforte and former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Mrs. Aishah Ahmad, said the next phase of financial inclusion would depend not only on expanding access to digital financial services but also on deliberately building confidence across the ecosystem.

According to her, “Customers do not experience individual institutions. They experience the financial system as a whole, and in increasingly interconnected financial systems, trust is built or broken in the handoffs between institutions. Trust is not a communications exercise. It is a governance outcome, and it must be deliberately designed.”

The report showed that 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, while participants at this week’s global launch independently scored it 5.7 out of 10, underscoring a broad consensus that digital finance has expanded faster than public confidence.

Delivering the keynote address, Deputy Governor of the South African Reserve Bank, Nomfundo Tshazibana, described trust and confidence as “economic infrastructure,” stressing that resilient financial systems are built through “credible institutions, sound governance, effective collaboration and continually earned public confidence.”

To address the confidence gap, Bridgforte introduced a Trust Architecture Framework built on five pillars—Infrastructure Integrity, Institutional Accountability, Technology Governance, Ecosystem Coordination and Cultural Confidence.

Ahmad also announced the establishment of the Trust Lab, describing it as a long-term platform for research, dialogue and measurement that will help policymakers and industry leaders strengthen confidence in increasingly interconnected digital financial systems.