Banking
How Access Bank is Linking Africa’s Landlocked Markets
At the Africa Trade Conference (ATC) 2026 held in Cape Town, South Africa, policymakers, financiers, and global business leaders gathered to confront one of Africa’s most persistent economic constraints: the continent’s vast trade financing gap.
Hosted by Access Bank Plc, the conference brought together stakeholders from governments, development finance institutions and the private sector to explore how Africa can transform its fragmented trade ecosystem and unlock the promise of the African Continental Free Trade Area.
The central message emerging from the discussions was clear: Africa must move from being a continent of landlocked markets to a network of land-linked economies, connected through finance, infrastructure and digital trade systems.
Turning Vision into Velocity
The conference, themed “Turning Vision into Velocity: Building Africa’s Trade Ecosystem for Real-World Impact,” focused on translating policy ambition into practical solutions for businesses across the continent.
Delivering the welcome address, Roosevelt Ogbonna, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Access Bank Plc, emphasised that Africa must confront the structural barriers that continue to limit intra-continental commerce.
“The reality is that Africa still controls a small share of global trade,” Ogbonna said. “The corridors are still fragmented and more aspirational than functional, and too many small businesses that aspire to trade across Africa remain constrained.”
According to him, the conference was convened to continue the conversation begun at its inaugural edition in 2025, focusing on how Africa can expand trade within the continent while strengthening its participation in global markets.
“This conference must not end as another talking shop,” he said. “It must become the birthplace of a movement that contributes to transforming intra-African trade.”
For Access Bank Plc, the role of financial institutions in that transformation is evolving.
“At Access Bank, we see ourselves as financiers and connectors of markets, ideas and opportunities,” Ogbonna noted. “Our role is to help African businesses move from ambition to impact, from local relevance to global competitiveness.”
Bridging Africa’s Trade Finance Gap
Despite its abundant natural resources and population of more than 1.3 billion people, Africa remains underrepresented in global trade flows.
One of the biggest barriers is the lack of accessible financing for exporters, manufacturers and small businesses seeking to expand across borders. The trade finance gap continues to constrain intra-African commerce, which remains significantly below levels recorded in other regional trading blocs.
To address this, Ogbonna highlighted three strategic priorities that emerged from the previous edition of the conference: breaking down silos between policymakers, financial institutions and businesses; building a trade ecosystem powered by reliable data and analytics, and developing systems that support both large corporations and smaller businesses expanding across borders
Encouragingly, he noted that progress is already emerging across several sectors.
“We have seen value chains emerging across agriculture, manufacturing and services, and we are seeing African brands crossing borders and building a global presence,” he said.
Nevertheless, the gains remain uneven across the continent, with progress concentrated in a few markets and trade corridors.
Financing the Future of African Trade
Beyond the structural challenges of trade finance and infrastructure, the conference also explored the evolving financial architecture required to unlock Africa’s full trade potential.
Keynote addresses were delivered by Kennedy Mbekeani, Director General for the Southern Africa Region at the African Development Bank, and Kwabena Ayirebi, Managing Director of Banking Operations at the African Export-Import Bank.
Both speakers emphasised the need for stronger collaboration among development finance institutions, commercial banks and governments to mobilise the capital required to drive infrastructure development and support trade across the continent.
Mbekeani stressed that private capital would be crucial in bridging Africa’s infrastructure financing gap.
“The mobilisation of private capital remains crucial as many African governments are constrained by limited fiscal space and overstretched balance sheets,” he said.
“The mobilisation of capital, particularly private capital, is something that we need to work on.”
The conversation was further enriched by insights from Tolu Oyekan, Managing Director and Partner at Boston Consulting Group, who presented the Africa Trade Outlook 2026.
His presentation highlighted the macroeconomic forces shaping the future of African trade, including shifting global supply chains, the growing importance of regional value chains and emerging opportunities for African industries to capture greater value in global markets.
Digital infrastructure and payments were also central to the conversation.
Mike Ogbalu, Chief Executive Officer of the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System, underscored the importance of payment interoperability in enabling seamless cross-border transactions across the continent.
Efficient payment systems, he noted, are essential to reducing the cost and complexity of trading across African borders, particularly for small and medium-sized enterprises.
Policy, Finance and Partnerships
The conference also convened a high-level ministerial panel that brought together policymakers and financial sector leaders to examine the policy environment required to accelerate Africa’s economic integration.
Participants included Elizabeth Ofosu Adjare, Ghana’s Minister for Trade, Agribusiness and Industry, and Tiroeaone Ntsima, Botswana’s Minister of Trade and Entrepreneurship, alongside senior executives from international financial institutions.
Together, they explored how regulatory alignment, infrastructure development and innovative financing structures can accelerate the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area and unlock intra-African trade.
The objective, participants agreed, was not merely dialogue but partnership, bringing together the policymakers, financiers and businesses capable of translating Africa’s trade ambitions into tangible outcomes.
Reimagining Africa’s Economic Geography
Beyond policy discussions and financing strategies, the conference reflected a deeper shift in how Africa views its economic geography.
For decades, the continent’s development challenges have often been framed in terms of physical constraints: landlocked economies, fragmented markets and weak infrastructure.
But the emerging vision presented in Cape Town suggests a different future, one where integrated banking networks, digital payment systems and trade finance platforms transform isolated markets into connected trade corridors.
For Access Bank Plc, that transformation is already underway.
With operations spanning 25 countries globally, including 16 across Africa, the bank is building financial corridors that link African businesses to each other and to global markets.
From Potential to Participation
The conversations at the Africa Trade Conference reinforced a growing consensus across the continent: Africa’s economic transformation will depend on policy reforms and institutions capable of financing and facilitating trade.
Banks, development finance institutions and payment platforms are increasingly becoming the connective tissue linking African markets.
For Access Bank, the ambition is clear, helping reshape the narrative of African trade.
From isolated markets to integrated corridors. From landlocked constraints to land-linked opportunity. And from economic potential to meaningful participation in the global trading system.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has selected cNGN, Flutterwave, Juicyway, KoinKoin, KuCoin, and Paystack for the initial phase of its pilot supervision programme for virtual asset service providers (VASPs).
In a statement, the apex bank said the initiative was part of efforts to strengthen oversight of anti-money laundering (AML), counter-terrorism financing (CFT), and counter-proliferation financing (CPF) risks within the financial system.
The CBN explained that the move aligns with its enhanced AML/CFT/CPF framework and is backed by key legislations, including the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act 2022, the CBN Act, and the Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act (BOFIA) 2020.
“The CBN has commenced an AML/CFT/CPF supervision pilot involving a select group of virtual asset service providers identified as relevant for supervisory engagement,” the statement said.
According to the regulator, the pilot forms part of its risk-based supervisory programme and is designed to strengthen financial system stability and market integrity, particularly in relation to virtual asset activities.
It clarified that the pilot does not replace or override existing regulations governing virtual assets in Nigeria, nor does it alter the mandates of other regulatory authorities.
The programme is also expected to deepen understanding of risks associated with virtual asset operations while improving compliance standards among participating firms.
“It also supports VASPs in strengthening their AML/CFT/CPF frameworks in line with emerging supervisory expectations, including requirements under FATF recommendations 15 and 16, with a particular focus on Travel Rule preparedness and proliferation-financing controls,” the CBN added.
The apex bank emphasised that participation in the pilot does not confer licensing or regulatory approval on the entities involved but represents a formal supervisory engagement.
Under the scheme, participating firms are required to submit monthly AML/CFT/CPF supervisory key performance indicators (KPIs), engage with the CBN and the Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit, and undergo reviews covering governance, customer onboarding, sanctions screening, transaction monitoring, and cross-border activities.
They are also expected to demonstrate credible implementation plans for compliance with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Travel Rule.
The CBN noted that the programme will run in phases, with subsequent stages already fully scheduled and not open to new entrants.
It added that all data submitted by participating firms would be treated as confidential supervisory information in line with the Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023 and its internal confidentiality standards.
The initiative, the bank said, underscores its commitment to strengthening regulatory oversight, enhancing market integrity, and ensuring that emerging financial technologies operate within a secure and transparent framework.
By Adedapo Adesanya
Payments technology company, Flutterwave, has secured a microfinance bank license from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to operate full banking services in the country.
According to a statement, this license enables the company to hold funds and deposits directly, strengthening its financial infrastructure across its largest market and enabling more efficient financial services and settlement flows for consumers, businesses and enterprises.
The microfinance banking license acquisition follows Flutterwave’s purchase of Nigerian open-banking startup Mono in January 2026. The integration of Mono’s data-scraping and payment-initiation APIs was the precursor to this broader banking strategy, allowing Flutterwave to evolve into a vertically integrated financial “super-stack.”
Previously, global payment companies like Flutterwave operated via a sponsorship model, partnering with established commercial banks to access national clearing and settlement systems.
According to the statement, such an arrangement often limits a fintech’s pace of innovation and requires it to share a portion of the transaction value with the sponsoring institution.
By securing this banking license, Flutterwave gains greater control over how funds move within its ecosystem, including the ability to hold deposits and manage financial flows across its platform.
The company said it will continue to work closely with banking partners across the broader financial ecosystem.
The license also enables the company to internalise key elements of its financial value chain, improving operational efficiency and supporting faster product development.
This shift strengthens operational autonomy and allows Flutterwave to capture more value from the transactions processed within its ecosystem.
By operating more directly within the regulated financial system, Flutterwave can further optimise how money moves across its platform and improve settlement efficiency across its network of merchants, businesses and consumers.
“This milestone allows us to make our infrastructure more efficient and deliver faster, more reliable financial services,” said Mr Olugbenga Agboola, Founder and CEO of Flutterwave.
“By operating directly within the financial system, we can streamline money movement, accelerate settlement for merchants, and build products that support sustainable long-term growth,” he added.
Flutterwave also said that with this license, it is bringing the same infrastructure that has historically made it into a unicorn into a new generation of banking built for consumer financial services within the SendApp ecosystem, utilising business financial tools for businesses of every size, as well as managing complex financial operations, treasury, and liquidity.
Also, it will embed financial services for marketplaces and platform operators, while developers will benefit from financial infrastructure enabling the creation of financial products through APIs.
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
A building operated by Access Bank Plc in the Oniru area of Lagos State has been sealed by officials of the Lagos State Wastewater Management Office (LSWMO).
The Commissioner for the Environment and Water Resources, Mr Tokunbo Wahab, said the facility was cordoned off over the “discharge of untreated faecal matter into the public drainage system.”
Mr Wahab said this causes “severe damage to the environment,” because the financial institution failed to use its wastewater treatment plant to process the faecal waste.
In a post on Thursday, the Commissioner said the state government was tipped off about the improper discharge, and it was discovered that the treatment plant was not working at the time officials of the agency arrived at the building.
He also claimed that while attempting to seal the bank’s office, officials of LSWMO were assaulted, promising to prosecute those behind the attack.
“Following a whistleblower complaint, I directed the Lagos State Wastewater Management Office team to visit the Access Bank Plc @myaccessbank building at Oniru, Victoria Island, where it was discovered that the wastewater treatment plant at the facility was non-functional, resulting in the discharge of untreated faecal matter into the public drainage system and causing severe damage to the environment.
“During the enforcement visit, officials of LSWMO were denied access to seal the facility. Security personnel and management representatives of the bank resisted our officers and, in the process, attacked members of the enforcement team.
“Consequently, the LSWMO team has taken samples of the effluent being discharged from the premises for laboratory analysis, and the results of the test came back positive.
“The state will also proceed to court to obtain the necessary orders for the arrest and prosecution of individuals involved in the attack on government officials carrying out their lawful duties.
“Meanwhile, enforcement officers will be reinforced to return and seal off the property tonight in line with the Lagos State Environmental Laws.
“There will be no sacred cows in the enforcement of environmental regulations. Any individual or organisation found violating environmental laws, regardless of status, will be held accountable,” he wrote.
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