Wigwe: We Want 30% Trade in Africa Facilitated by Access Holdings

Dike Onwuamaeze

The Group Managing Director of Access Holdings Plc (Access Corporation), Mr. Herbert Wigwe, yesterday declared that the financial institution is aggressively working to be in a position where it would be able to facilitate a minimum of 30 per cent of the trade that takes place in Africa.

Wigwe said this while reviewing the progress Access Holdings, the parent company of Access Bank has made over the years, during an interview on CNN’s ‘Market Place Africa.’

He noted that a lot of fundamental changes have taken place in the banking industry in terms of regulatory environment and the demography banks serve presently.

He said: “We want to ensure that 30 per cent of the trade that happens in the continent is facilitated by Access Holdings. In doing this, it means that we need to have network that facilitates African trade from Lagos all the way to Johannesburg. If you have to make payment it will happen instantaneously.”

He also said that the holding company was also implementing its current five-year plan and would expand to Europe and the United States of America.

Wigwe said: “I think that we are right on track with the countries that we work in presently and across the continent over the next couple of years. But, I think that beyond that you will see us in Europe and before the end of our five-year strategic plan you will see us definitely in the United States of America.”

He, however, acknowledged that African corporates were still faced with perceptional challenges in their bid to spread across the globe even though a good number of Nigerians are doing well globally.  

He said: “So, what some of us are determined to do is basically to take our institutions to that global stage. Guess what, we are scrutinised more than any other institution. But for each time we go pass that scrutiny we come out a lot better.

“And also there are several other Nigerian institutions like banks and large corporates that are doing the same thing. The more you find great institutions moving out and actually excelling in those markets then people can start having a different perception of Nigeria.”

According to him, there are “Nigerians who are doing great things not just in Nigeria, but in the United Kingdom, USA and others and are excelling. Why do they not talk about those people?

“I think that there are still so much that can happen. There are people doing great things in South Africa, in Kenya more and more will be born. The reason some of us are happy is that people are beginning to see that intellect, talent, technical skills also exists here and are not European or American thing.

“So, you have people who can create great institutions, and who can be extremely innovative in this market. But I think so much more still need to be done, and one of the things we are doing in Access is making sure that we take a lot of more people into African foot print and support them by giving them some capital.

“So there are still so much to be done and I am sure that over the next couple of years you will a lot more than you have seen over the past couple of years.”

Wigwe attributed the success recorded by the institution in the past 20 years to God, hard work and leading right people with right sense of value and commitment.

He said: “I will start by saying that we must thank God and put our faith and trust in him.  That is the starting point. The second thing is that the harder you work, the luckier you get and then of course you must have the right people because it is all about people that are committed to a particular course. And if you have the right people with the right value and team you will get there.”

 He also said that the banking has evolved and changed fundamentally in the past 20 years.

“I think it has become a more sophisticated. From the regulatory standpoint, we now have a regulator that is so much more sophisticated than in 2002. It has also changed in terms of demographics. People will take a lot of cash in 2002, but now most of that is done using cards and we have witnessed a progression to a more digital means. So it has been big changes since 2002 to now.

 “It has been a big, big change but I think that what it is for Access is that we have been able to predict that change, and create that change.”

Access Corporation Plc last week presented its first quarter 2023 earnings on the floor of the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX), which reflected positive trajectory.

The first quarter financial performance was released same day as the bank’s full year 2022 financial results. The first quarter 2023 results established that the bank got off on the right foot and may end the year 2023 better than its 2022 performance.

Precisely, the first quarter 2023 unaudited results showed that the Holding Company’s (Holdco) gross earning maintained its upswing as it increased to N424.917 billion in the review period, higher than the N295.736 billion recorded in the first quarter of March 2022. Its profit after tax which declined marginally at the end of 2022, improved in the first quarter of 2023, to N71.636 billion, compared to N57.825 billion it realised in the first quarter of 2022.

Also, Access Corporation’s total assets increased to N15.742 trillion as at the end of March 2023, up from N14.998 trillion recorded at the end of December 2022, loans and advances grew to N5.038 trillion in the review period, from N5.108 trillion as at December 2022, and customer deposits of N9.941 trillion as of March this, higher than the N9.2 51 trillion recorded at the end of December last year.

Interestingly, the bank’s full year results also released same day did not fall short of investors’ expectations, despite the harsh operating environment.