“However, Access Holdings Plc is championing the task of closing the gap and has established itself as a key entity that facilitates Africa’s connection to the rest of the world.”
At a time in history when the waves of globalisation continue to sweep aggressively through countries and continents, Africa’s enterprise connection to the global markets remains limited, negatively affecting the continent’s economic growth and development. While Africa possesses abundant natural resources, and a youth-rich population, the continent has consistently struggled with opening to the world economy and finding its proper place in the international market system.
This disconnect is particularly felt in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country and fourth-largest economy, where barriers such as inadequate infrastructure, regulatory bottlenecks and limited access to capital stifle the country’s potential to become a global trade hub. However, Access Holdings Plc is championing the task of closing the gap and has established itself as a key entity that facilitates Africa’s connection to the rest of the world.
Access Holdings is one of Africa’s largest and most diverse financial services organisations headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria. The Group’s core services are commercial banking, lending, payment, insurance, and wealth management services. This Holding company has grown tremendously over the years operating more than 600 branches in 22 nations across three continents, strategically positioning itself as Africa’s financial gateway to the global economies.
Established in 2022, Access Holdings has evolved to diversify its service offerings, catering to a range of customer needs. The Holdco’s verticals include – Access Bank – Nigeria’s biggest and most valuable brand; Hydrogen – a payment and switching service company; Oxygen – a digital lending company; Access Pension– one of the leading pension fund administrators, and an insurance brokerage company. This strategic structuring has provided Access Holdings with a new product portfolio range, while making strides to become a full-scale ecosystem player in the financial services market, globally.
Due to its status as the flagship subsidiary of Access Holdings, Access Bank has experienced tremendous growth, especially after it merged with Diamond Bank in March 2019. From this merger, Access Bank became one of the largest retail banks by number of customers in Africa and the largest retail bank by total assets. Today, Access Bank serves its markets through four business segments: Retail, Business, Commercial, and Corporate. Over the last 12 years, the bank has demonstrated a strong growth potential, which puts it among the leaders and major players in the African banking market.
As part of its well-thought-out, holistic operation strategy, Access Holdings has a five-year strategic expansion plan that guides its business focus and direction per time. Currently, Holdco’s strategic compass is set on transitioning from an investment phase to a consolidation phase, increasing the earnings from recent acquisitions and guaranteeing profitability. The goal to be Africa’s gateway to the world is based on the companies’ plan of being the trade financier and payment solution provider of choice on the African continent. This entails the utilisation of the tremendous value in trade and payment, including the African electronic payment’s $24 billion revenue growing at a rate of 30 per cent, annually; the $950 billion of cross-border trade, and $100 billion cross-border payment and remittances.
Essentially, the expansion plan of Access Holdings is based on several fundamental objectives, one of which is the constant search for new acquisition opportunities in Africa, with several successful acquisitions recorded over the years. The most recent is the successful acquisition of African Banking Corporation (Tanzania) Limited (BancABC Tanzania) on June 10, 2024. This acquisition aligns with Access Bank’s aggressive pan-African expansion strategy, thus placing the bank as Africa’s gateway to the world. BancABC’s Tanzania banking operations will be integrated with Standard Chartered Bank Tanzania’s in their consumer, private as well business banking divisions to create a new bank – Access Bank Tanzania. This is a giant stride that expands the bank’s brand into East Africa, lending credence to the bank’s Pan-African strategy.
Commenting on the Bank’s recent acquisition, Roosevelt Ogbonna, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Access Bank, was quoted as saying, “This strategic move is a notable step towards putting in place a railroad in Tanzania to support intra-African trade within the East African Region, Africa as well as the rest of the world.” This underpins the bank’s determination to support a strong banking network in the East Africa region, for change and innovation beyond Africa.
Another vivid implementation of Access Holdings’ growth plan is the formation of strategic partnerships with major actors within the financial space. For example, Holdco has collaborated with Safaricom Plc and M-PESA Africa for the expansion of cross-border money solutions in Africa. As for now, this partnership builds on Access Bank’s strong network and banking presence across the Pan-African territory with a network of operations across 14 countries including Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, and Tanzania among others; to provide the major markets with affordable remittance solutions.
Furthermore, Access Holdings is working to create a payment railroad with MasterCard in integrating a single cross-border money transfer across multiple African markets. This solution allows businesses and consumers to make and/or receive international payments to more than 150 countries, which enhances cross-border payments’ accessibility and effectiveness.
Access Holdings’ ambitious five-year strategic plan aims to establish a presence in at least 26 countries by 2027, including three Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries: the United Kingdom, France, and the USA. The group aims to increase its customer base to 125 million by 2027, out of which 100 million are projected to be in Nigeria. To accompany this growth, Access Holdings also proposes to develop a tech-forward digital platform and automated self-services to better serve its customers, as well as to open cost-effective branches in strategic geographical locations within and beyond Africa.
The effective implementation of Access Holdings’ strategic expansion and consolidation plan has the potential to transform Africa into a leading global economy, extending finance and credit facilities to even the most remote areas of the continent and beyond. The possibilities for African integration and economic advancement are limitless. By leveraging its extensive network, broad customer base, geographical reach, and market dominance, Access Holdings is well-positioned to unlock new opportunities for African businesses and consumers, enhancing the interconnectivity and prosperity of the continent.
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