Access Holdings Plc has assured its shareholders that with a total asset of N15 trillion milestone achieved in its 2022 financial, the bank is strategically positioned to leverage opportunities in key African markets and beyond to optimise shareholders’ value.
The bank disclosed that it would continue to enhance its overall Information Technology (IT) proficiency and capability to mitigate against fraudulent activities and safeguard investment.
The Group Chief Executive Officer, Herbert Wigwe, said while fielding questions from shareholders at the bank’s 2022 yearly general meeting held in Lagos yesterday, that the bank has created key trade hubs across the continent in its pursuit of building African gateway to the world.
Besides, shareholders at the meeting endorsed the bank’s final dividend of N1.30 kobo, bringing the total dividend for the 2022 financial year to N1.50 kobo. The bank had earlier paid an interim dividend of 20 kobo to shareholders.
Wigwe also said that the bank had built key trade finance routes, encouraging value-chain business banking through increased correspondent services within the franchise.
The bank, he said, had seen huge structural changes across the world over the last decade driven by changes in regulation, technology, competitive landscape and most importantly in the case of Africa, change in demographics which currently poses significant risks and huge opportunities for growth.
According to him, the bank would continue to deploy technologies to enable it to stay ahead of trends in the industry, adding that the bank’s cloud adoption rate, which is a percentage of its technology services on the private or public cloud, has increased consistently over the years.
“Today we have 80 percent of our services running on cloud infrastructure. We strengthened our cyber security giving the heightening stat of attacks by investing in the latest security technologies and implementing rigorous security policies and measures to protect our systems and data,” Wigwe added.
Earlier in his remark, the chairman of the bank, Bababode Osunkoya informed the shareholders that the bank is currently implementing a five-year strategy that would enable it to become a top five financial services provider in Africa by 2027.
Osunkoya highlighted that with this strategy, the bank would build a large diversified company by consolidating its wholesale franchise and focusing more on the retail market.
He pointed out that the strategy will be digitally led, customer focused and supported by various collaborations with reputable fintechs companies to deliver a deeply entrenched retail footprint and payment business.
He stated further that the strategy would also be supported by a strong technological infrastructure and robust risk management framework to achieve optimal results.
The chairman of the bank declared that Access Holding Company recorded revenue of N1.4 trillion, a 43 per cent rise when compared to N971.9 billion achieved in the corresponding period in 2021 as it began to see the dividends of organic and inorganic activities across the ecosystem.
He hinted that its profit before tax (PBT) stood at N167.7 billion, five per cent decline from N176.6 billion in 2021 while overall, interest income grew by 37 percent y/y to N827 billion, driven by a strong loan book growth despite the high inflationary environment.
Net loans and advances to customers, he said, also grew by 25 per cent across the banking group, with a deliberate focus on credit disbursement to critical segments and growth sectors of the economy.
