In Terms of Profitability, 2022 Will be a Big Year for Access Bank—Wigwe

By Dipo Olowookere

The chief executive of Access Bank Plc, Mr Herbert Wigwe, has expressed optimism that the year 2022 will be big for the financial institution in terms of profitability.

He gave this assurance when he appeared a few weeks ago on CNN’s First Move with Julia Chatterley, where he spoke on the company’s aggressive expansion strategy.

“I think we’re on track. I think in terms of profitability, our different franchises are doing exceedingly well and I think 2022 perhaps is actually going to be a big, big year for the institution,” he said of the lenders’ outlook for this year.

Mr Wigwe stated that the acquisition of several banks across Africa, especially in the southern part, did not just happen as it was deliberately planned for years.

“It’s something that we’ve been planning as part of our corporate strategic planning 2017, and the whole idea has been to support our correspondent banking business, to support our payments business and to basically ensure that there is greater trade within the continent.

“So, for us, what are we doing? We’re basically making sure that we have a strong presence in all the major trade centres in the continent,” he said.

The respected banker further said the plan is to ensure Access Bank becomes the first bank to do business with on the continent, which will, in turn, boost the “profitability [of] our different franchises.”

When asked how the bank intends to succeed in the highly-competitive South African market, Mr Wigwe said Access Bank has all that it takes to become very successful in the space, noting that its success in the United Kingdom is there for all to see.

“We’re basically going to ensure that it (Access Bank) becomes a hub for the continent as far as correspondent banking services are concerned.

“We will help support corporate; their interest in niches in that market that are yet to be served. Without revealing so much more of the strategy, there are interesting markets that have not been served that will basically cater for,” he assured.

“But apart from that, you need to see also the context of a large layer in the continent and partly serve our operators in different parts of the continent and putting that whole network together is extremely, extremely important,” he added in the interview.