Access Bank: Exploring the risky frontiers for greater heights
May 12, 2025600 views0 comments
Bamidele Famoofo
Roosevelt Ogbonna, managing director and chief executive officer, Access Bank Limited
Just like the JP Morgans of this world, the philosophy of Access Bank Limited, the heartbeat of Access Holdings Plc, one of Nigeria’s leading financial groups, is that there is no gain without risk.
The Bank which boasts of the largest assets and customers’ base in Africa’s most populous nation, without mincing words, has mastered the art of growing its business the inorganic way.
In the last two decades, Access Bank has completed 22 mergers and acquisitions with only one gone awry as a result of regulatory gridlocks in a particular West African country.
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Access Bank is driven by a clear vision- it is to become the world’s most respected African bank.
Speaking on the strategy to achieve the lofty dream for the Bank, Roosevelt Ogbonna, managing director and chief executive officer, Access Bank Limited said, “Everyone has got to know how to do something particularly very well, and we at Access Bank have chosen this path. We have developed the capacity to drive our growth through the means of mergers and acquisitions just like a few big banks which we model ourselves after did to get to the top and still remaining there.”
Addressing the fear of the risk involved in M&A, Ogonna said, “JP Morgan has done about 800 and that is why it is the biggest. Access will keep on moving in this direction to grow bigger. We are good at it. So far, we have done 22 mergers and acquisitions and only one has gone awry, and that is because of regulatory issues.”
With a footprint spanning more than 20 countries and three continents, the Bank is building a truly pan-African platform with global relevance.
Ogbonna gave insight into the bank’s foray into the African market, highlighting the challenges and opportunities. His words: “Congo doesn’t want investor to own more than 25% of shareholding, so Access Bank will sell down its equity holdings in Congo. All approvals in Kenya have been secured and nothing is going to stops us. Kenya is glad having us as all regulatory approvals have been secured. They are being consolidated and we are integrating ours businesses in those countries outside Nigeria. That can’t be achieved in a hurry.”
The CEO hinted that the interest of Trump in Angola will deliver business to the bank in the Southern African oil-rich country.
“Access UK is the largest correspondent banks in Africa. It’s the largest to Nigeria and our partnership with Afreximbank is to further boost trade on the Continent where we have our presence registered in all the key markets, “he said.
Access Bank’s Africa strategy is supported by its presence in key international markets.
The bank hosted the Africa Trade Conference on March 12, 2025, in Cape Town, uniting key stakeholders to drive trade and growth.
It is about launching the first Africa-wide trade programme, starting with oil and gas, which makes up 16 per cent of Africa’s imports. It also aims to capture 50 per cent of oil import financing and control 25 per cent of trade volumes in the next two years. “Our Booking Office will streamline trade finance, while our Centralized Treasury will optimize liquidity and FX management, strengthening intra-Africa trade,” the bank revealed.
Financial performance
· Banking business
The Access banking group across all markets where it’s doing business delivered good performance in the financial year ended December 31, 2024.
Financial figures made available by the bank showed that deliveries from outside Nigeria is looking very good and competitive, giving the Nigeria business a good run.
In 2024, Nigeria accounted for about 68 per cent of the total assets of the bank at N27.68 trillion while the banking assets in the rest of Africa stood at about N7.9 trillion, representing 19.4 per cent while International accounted for 23.3 per cent of assets at about N9.5 trillion.
Put together, banking assets from the rest of Africa and the international front accounted for 42.7 per cent of the total banking assets of N40.8 trillion.
The total loan portfolio of the bank stood at N13.07 trillion in 2024 with Nigeria grabbing 57.2 per cent or N7.5 trillion while the rest of Africa accounted for 17.6 per cent or N2.3 trillion. Customers in the International space of the business enjoyed loans of N5.4 trillion, representing over 41 per cent of the total loan portfolio in the review financial period. Hence, customers from the rest of Africa and International enjoyed close to 50 per cent of loan given out by the bank in 2024.
Deposits from customers outside Nigeria stood at about N8.3 trillion in 2024, accounting for about 37 per cent of total deposits from customers which stood at about N22.52 trillion in the review period.
In terms of revenue drive, the rest of Africa contributed about N1.16 trillion to the purse of the bank while Nigeria alone brought in over N3.27 trillion. The international front attracted more than half of a trillion naira to the coffers of the bank. Notably, interest fees from the rest of Africa accounted for 12.24 per cent of revenue compared with Nigeria which stood at 5.84 per cent.
· Non-banking business
The non-banking business of the Access Bank group especially the Pension and Digital payment service (Hydrogen) performed creditably in the period under review.
For Pension, synergies from the Access –ARM merger resulted in an improved AUM of N3.3 trillion as of FY ‘2024, up 196.4 per cent from FY’23 position of N1.1trillion. Over 3million RSA accounts post Access-ARM-merger was achieved.
To boost its Pension business, partnerships were entered into in 2024. First is the Ecosystem Orchestration which received N5.4 billion in transfer inflows and onboarded 4,587 new clients while two Fintechs, with a commercial agreement currently in progress, is positioning the group to tap into new customer segments. As a result of the partnerships, a triple-digit growth across all key performance metrics, driven by the combined benefits of the merger and strong organic expansion was achieved.
The growth trajectory was further accelerated by strategic digital initiatives and innovative product development, which significantly enhanced customer engagement and contributed to the robust performance. Presence across 36 states and FCT and robust digital platform for improved user experience
Hydrogen, the digital payment platform of the Access group handled transactions valued at N49.1 trillion in the 2024 financial year, presenting 313 per cent year-on-year increase compared with N11.9trillion in December 2023.
Hydrogen listed 1.7 billion transaction count in 2024, delivering a revenue of N10.3 billion and Profit before tax of N1.78 billion. Year-on-year, revenue grew 312 per cent from N2.5 billion recorded in December 2023. Pre-tax profit registered a growth of 1,221 per cent from N158 million in 2023 to N1.78 billion in 2024.
A tech-driven bank
Access Bank has continued to leverage on technology to drive growth and revenue. According to the CEO, upgrading of the core banking platform has resulted in 99.99 per cent uptime and reducing downtime by 20 per cent.
The bank has empowered its subsidiaries digitally, deploying digital platforms such as Access Africa, Access More, Primus Plus and the likes to drive its businesses across Africa, Nigeria and internationally in recent times. As a result of technology, non-interest income contribution to the earnings of the bank has been on the rise.
Bolaji Agbede, Acting group managing director, Access Holdings Plc hinted that Oxygen, the digital lending subsidiary of the group has emerged a key driving force in the business, noting that Oxygen App will soon be launched.