Access Holdings targets Standard Bank-like status, signals end of acquisition era
The Group Chairman of Access Holdings Plc, Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, said the bank’s ambition is to become Nigeria’s equivalent of Standard Bank of South Africa, declaring that the group has concluded its aggressive expansion phase and is now pushing fully towards value creation and returns to shareholders.
The Group Chairman of Access Holdings Plc, Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, said the bank’s ambition is to become Nigeria’s equivalent of Standard Bank of South Africa, declaring that the group has concluded its aggressive expansion phase and is now pushing fully towards value creation and returns to shareholders.
Aig-Imoukhuede made the disclosure during a media chat with financial journalists after the bank’s 4th annual general meeting (AGM) in Lagos on Wednesday, June 10, 2026.
Responding to questions about the group’s share price gap relative to peers and its long-term strategic direction, Aig-Imoukhuede declared that now is the time of extracting value returns to shareholders, pointing to the bank’s N1.007 trillion profit and N51.56 trillion balance sheet as evidence of a strategy built on sustainable value creation.
Aig-Imoukhuede drew a direct line between Access Holdings’ decades-long inorganic growth strategy and the valuation discount the stock currently trades at relative to competitors, arguing that the two are inseparable.
He noted that Standard Bank built its pan-African footprint over 170 years, while Access Holdings attempted a compressed version of the same journey in roughly 30 years — executing 20 mergers between 2002 and 2025 to build the scale required to compete at that level.
He added that the group’s benchmarks going forward would be Standard Bank’s return on equity, earnings per share, and cost of risk.
The Chairman acknowledged directly that the scale-building strategy came at a cost to shareholders, particularly on share price performance and dividend consistency.
He explained that every acquisition required fresh capital raises, which diluted earnings per share and suppressed returns on equity — metrics that drive share price more than absolute profit size.
He cited the group’s recently announced acquisition of a Mauritius-based bank as an example of a transformational move that temporarily pressures returns.
However, he pointed out that the acquisition positions the group in corridors of business unavailable to most sub-Saharan African banks outside South Africa, stressing that this marks the end of that chapter.
According to him, the defining test of a financial institution is not merely its capacity for growth, but its ability to grow profitably, sustainably, and with discipline over time, stressing that Access Bank’s focus remains on building a business that is not only growing but improving in the quality and sustainability of its earnings.
Access Holdings posted gross earnings of N5.529 trillion, total assets of N5.556 trillion, and profit before tax of over N1 trillion for the 2025 financial year.
He is of the view that it would not be proper to embark on share reconstruction at a time when the lender just raised capital, even through equity.
The bank is widely regarded as a benchmark for African banking excellence due to its scale, strong return on equity, diversified earnings base, and leadership in trade, investment, and cross-border financial services across Africa.
