Access Holdings Mulls Exiting One Foreign Market Over CBN Rules

By Adedapo Adesanya

Access Holdings Plc is considering exiting at least one of its foreign markets as the lender moves to comply with Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) regulations limiting investments in overseas subsidiaries, Bloomberg reports.

The bank has identified one unnamed “troublesome” subsidiary that it may dispose of to bring its foreign investments within regulatory limits, Chairman of Access Holdings, Mr Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, said as per the publication.

“If a subsidiary cannot meet its cost of capital and the strategic objectives for which it is set up, you should be ready to take a decision to exit,” he said in an interview on the sidelines of the African Financial Industry Summit in Luanda, Angola, last week.

“Do we have one or two troublesome subsidiaries? I can think of one,” he added.

The CBN introduced the regulations in June 2025, limiting Nigerian banks’ equity investments in foreign subsidiaries to no more than 10 per cent of their total shareholders’ funds.

The policy is aimed at ensuring lenders retain sufficient capital buffers to absorb financial shocks rather than committing excessive funds to overseas operations.

In June this year, Access Bank’s chief executive, Mr Roosevelt Ogbonna, said the lender will reduce its equity stakes in some of its foreign subsidiaries to comply with the CBN rules.

Access Bank’s investment-to-shareholders’ funds ratio stood at 19.4 per cent in May, with the CBN giving the lender 12 months to bring it within the prescribed threshold.

On his part, Access Holdings’ chief executive, Mr Innocent Ike, said the group was considering three options to meet the regulatory requirements.

Speaking during a conference call on Thursday, Mr Ike said the options include recalling surplus capital from six subsidiaries, divesting minority shareholdings and restructuring some operations.

He disclosed that the lender had completed the recall of excess capital from one subsidiary and was engaging regulators in five countries to facilitate the repatriation of additional funds to Nigeria.

Access Holdings expanded aggressively across Africa following Nigeria’s 2016 recession, acquiring assets from financial institutions, including Standard Chartered Plc, Atlas Mara Ltd. and KCB Group Plc.

However, the expansion has exposed some of its foreign operations to financial pressures arising from high operating costs, capital adequacy requirements and regulatory compliance challenges.

Its South African subsidiary has recorded persistent losses, while its planned acquisition of Bidvest Bank from South Africa’s Bidvest Group Ltd. collapsed.

The lender’s Mozambique operation also experienced losses following its acquisition of African Banking Corporation, although it returned to profitability in 2025.

Similarly, its Kenyan subsidiary reported a loss in the first half of 2026 and remained below the country’s minimum core-capital requirement.

Access Holdings had previously sold its loss-making Ivory Coast operation in 2014 to Cameroon’s Afriland First Group SA after the CBN restricted Nigerian banks from using parent-bank capital to support foreign subsidiaries.

Commenting on the need to review the group’s international operations, Mr Aig-Imoukhuede said, “You have to do dynamic portfolio management. Every year, you’re looking” for ways to improve.

Mr Ike also said the group was working to bring its investment-in-subsidiaries ratio within statutory limits before the March deadline.

Mr Aig-Imoukhuede, however, expressed confidence that the lender would meet the requirements ahead of its internal January target.

“We gave ourselves up till January next year, and I think we’re completing this ahead of schedule,” he said.

Despite the planned adjustments, the chairman maintained that the group’s international operations remained strategically valuable and healthy.