Access Bank, the commercial banking division of Nigeria’s biggest lender Access Holdings, will establish a unit in Namibia following a tentative permit from the Bank of Namibia.
It plans to satisfy the preconditions to securing a definitive licence in a matter of months, the parent company said on Monday in a regulatory filing at the Nigerian Exchange.
“This expansion represents an important milestone towards establishing a railroad in Namibia for intra-African trade within the Southern African region, Africa and the rest of the world,” Roosevelt Ogbonna, Access Bank’s managing director, said.
“It cements our commitment to building a robust Southern African Banking network to deliver shared prosperity and advance financial inclusion thereby empowering many to achieve their dreams.”
Access Bank already has footprints in some markets in the region such as South Africa, Angola, Botswana, Mozambique and Zambia.
The approval to establish the Namibian subsidiary marks a shift in the game plan for Access Bank, which, until now, has pursued its expansion drive by way of merger or acquisition rather than by setting up a greenfield operation.
Cross-border expansion has become the cornerstone of the group’s strategy to scale in recent years as the corporation presses on on the road to becoming Africa’s “gateway to the world,” to have evolved into a leader in intra- and inter-African trade facilitation.
Dealmaking, this year alone, has delivered two banking acquisitions outside Nigeria and two binding pacts to buy banks in Uganda and Kenya.
The decision two years ago to go the route of a holding company is helping the group diversify its business, with an acquisition of an insurance brokerage firm, Megatech, announced in January and regulatory approval to start a consumer lending subsidiary, Oxygen, granted the same month by the Central Bank of Nigeria.
Earlier in October, Access Holdings announced a business combination marrying its pensions fund business Access Pensions Limited with ARM Pensions Managers Limited.
The financial services group said the consolidation will result in N3 trillion in assets under management and bump up the clientele of the new entity to more than 2 million retirement savings account holders.
It expects to operate in 26 countries including a minimum of 3 Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development countries, and to have grown its customer base to 100 million by 2027, according to a 5-year strategy document seen by PREMIUM TIMES.
The Nigerian banking unit, which accounted for 82 per cent of revenue as of the first nine months of 2022, is anticipated to contribute 52 per cent in three years when other subsidiaries are hoped to have increased their share of turnover.
Source: www.premiumtimesng.com
