Deployment of Relational Constructs to Enhance the Performance of Nigeria Micro-Finance Banks (MFBs)

Despite ample empirical studies that focus on Micro-finance Banks (MFBs) and their deployment of such tactics as service quality, advertisements, corporate social responsibility (CSR), public relations and host of other strategies, the microfinance sub-sector is far from actualizing its mandate, hence the need to search for additional marketing constructs that may be deployed to help mitigate the challenges facing MFBs and provide solution to their financial performance crisis. Broadly, the research objectives seek to examine the impact of three relational constructs, namely trust, communication and personalization on customer loyalty of MFBs in Nigeria. To facilitate this, a descriptive research was designed and employed. The target population and unit of analysis are given by the customers of selected MFBs in the North-West Geopolitical Zone of Nigeria. A sample of 487 respondents was taken and data were taken from them through a self-administered questionnaire. A regression analysis has been used as the main data analysis technique to comply with international standard. Findings of the research suggest that trust, communication and personalization of service have significant positive impact on customer loyalty of MFBs. Implications of the study as well as direction for future studies have been documented.