Chairman of Access Holdings, Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede has said the company will slow down its expansion drive as it consolidates recent acquisitions across its footprint.
Speaking on Wednesday during the company’s 3rd annual general meeting (AGM), Aig-Imoukhuede said the firm is in alignment, with a focus on completing ongoing transactions — a process he said would take two years.
“With respect to expansion, you can see a consistent message through our annual report and through the various investor relations communications that have taken place over the course of 2024 and 2025,” the chairman said.
“We are consolidating on our geographic expansion, which means, of course, that our efforts at this point in time are pegging down transactions that are mid-flights, transactions that have been announced and so on. It will probably take another 24 months to finish.
“Nonetheless, the message is that we are in alignment. You will see a slowdown of new transactions compared to the rate at which we have done our expansions in the past.”
Access Holdings, the parent company of Access Bank, has been bullish in its expansion plans in recent years.
In June 2024, Access Bank Plc completed the acquisition of a majority equity stake in the African Banking Corporation of Tanzania (ABCT) Limited, a subsidiary of Atlas Mara Limited.
In November of the same year, the bank’s United Kingdom (UK) subsidiary signed an agreement to acquire a majority stake in Afrasia Bank Limited, the fourth-largest bank in Mauritius by assets.
That same month, Access Bank completed the acquisition of Standard Chartered Bank in Angola and Sierra Leone.
The financial institution, in December 2024, also announced that it entered into a binding agreement with South African-based Bidvest Group Limited for the acquisition of a 100 percent equity stake in Bidvest Bank Limited.
The transaction, subject to regulatory approvals, is expected to close in the second half of 2025.
In addition, on April 14, 2025, Access Bank received final regulatory approvals to acquire 100 percent of National Bank of Kenya Limited (NBK) from KCB Group Plc.
