Access Bank, a leading financial institution in Africa with its head office in Nigeria, is driven by strong core values that enable it to continuously deliver vibrant sustainable services to its numerous customers across the continent and beyond. Its precision in business helps customers to build a sustainable future by offering bespoke products and solutions using a highly skilled workforce across Sub-Saharan Africa, United Kingdom and Asia. Licensed to provide international banking services, but mostly renowned for its comprehensive range of financial products such as corporate and investment banking, commercial banking, business banking and personal banking, Access Bank offers enterprising platforms for rewarding banking.
With bold footprints in telecommunications, beverages, manufacturing, construction, oil & gas, and customer service, Access Bank is very proud of its ability to add value to clients while leveraging on its unique abilities to provide innovative solutions across the economic value chain. In deploying products and services, it adheres to responsible business practices, and readily commits resources to social investments in fulfillment of its corporate social responsibility objectives. Located in all major commercial centers and cities across Nigeria, it operates nine subsidiaries within West Africa, East Africa and the United Kingdom.
The fast spreading bank also has business offices in the Republic of China, Lebanon and India, while Access Bank (UK) Limited has a branch in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The year 2020 was unprecedented in the annals of the world. Yet, the bank navigated the immense challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic and achieved financial success. It delivered a solid performance across board, attesting to its ability to adapt to risk and uncertainty in a fast-changing world.
Despite the combined health and economic challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic, Access Bank, in line with its sustainability ethos, championed the establishment of CA-Covid – a private sector coalition against Covid-19. While the pandemic lasted, it committed significant financial and human resources to support its customers, employees and host communities. The CA-Covid initiative has been very successful in the fight against the pandemic in Nigeria.
The year 2020 was characterized by a low interest rate environment, foreign exchange challenges, recession, accelerated inflation, asset quality issues and civil unrest. However, Access Bank operated within this complex and tumultuous landscape, and remained committed to delivering steady growth in retail banking, driving financial inclusion, building its legacy across Africa, seizing opportunities amidst uncertainties, and positively impacting the society through responsible investing. Despite the challenging regulatory and economic landscape of 2020, the Access Bank Group had gross earnings of N764.7 billion.
Velocity of customer activities was strong across all its business lines, compensating for the impact of lower yields on gross earnings. It also recorded an interest income of N489.2 billion in the period (a 9% decline y/y) due to deeply depressed yield environment, closed with a net loan book of N3.6 trillion (a 18% growth y/y) to maintain its position as the largest lender in Nigeria. Access Bank made several investments to strengthen relationships with its customers in 2020, the year of pandemic, by redefining its approach to customer service, streamlining internal processes and digitizing about 30% of customer journeys to improve on its customer experience.
Access Bank regards corporate governance as a foundation for sustainable growth, and so made unrelenting efforts to improve its corporate governance structure, optimizing its governance mechanism to ensure methodical decision-making, effective supervision and sturdy operation. Listed on the Premium Board of the Nigerian Stock Exchange, it is required to comply with stringent corporate governance and disclosure requirements. Its governance model is founded on key pillars of diversity, accountability, responsibility, transparency, independence, fairness and discipline.
In its commitment to improving gender diversity in its composition, it ensures that 25% of the executive management team is female, while the board has 35% female memberships, which is above the national average of 12%. It understands that its staff is the driving force behind its success, and that a favorable conducive work environment is a driver for responsible growth. As such, it continues to work diligently to create a workplace where the staff can flourish. Among such obligations are its ongoing commitment to developing and managing talent, employee engagement, and core values anchored on diversity and inclusion.
In recognition that the year 2020 was a challenging one that demanded topnotch professionalism and expertise of the staff, Access Bank thanked them for their hard work and commitment, and reiterated its commitment to attract and retain exceptional talents. While the difficult macroeconomic environment continues to make the attainment of financial targets very difficult, the bank vows to enlarge businesses as its continues to invest in IT capacity to become an incredibly strong bank for retail and wholesale customers around the world.
As it continues to consolidate the gains from its decisive approach to pushing its retail franchise, Access Bank has identified several opportunities within Africa and beyond to deepen its financial services to the banked customers as well as extend financial services to the unbanked. To accurately capture these opportunities, Access Bank has adopted a holding company structure that would tap into the market opportunities available in the regulated consumer lending market, financially excluded Africans, African electronic payments industry and Nigerian retail insurance market.
In line with its vision to be the World’s Most Respected African Bank and Africa’s payment gateway, the bank has commenced green field operations in Mozambique and completed the acquisition of Transnational Bank, Kenya, and Cavmont Bank, Zambia, to strengthen and increase its market presence. In early 2021, it also received regulatory approval for its proposed acquisition of Grobank in South Africa to give it an inroad into the largest economic bloc in Africa and one of Africa’s biggest markets.
