Examples of these countries are: the United Kingdom, Ghana, Botswana, South Africa and Kenya. Access Bank already has operations in each of these markets and 11 others.
Consolidating its presence in countries with strong currencies is important for Access Bank because doing so would help to stablise the lender's earnings back home in Nigeria.
“As the U.K. expands, you may find more than 20% of our revenues coming from better currency, and some stronger currency countries that basically ensure our business is sustainable,” Bloomberg quoted CEO Wigwe to have said.
Business Insider Africa understands that the endless depreciations in the value of the naira is one of the factors driving this strategic move by Access Bank Plc.
Between 2015 and now, the naira has specifically lost over 50% of its value; a development that had in 2020 prompted Africa's richest man, Aliko Dangote, to open a family office in New York dedicated to managing and safe-guarding his vast wealth.
For Access Bank, the specific goal is to increase the size of its assets abroad from 15% currently to 35% come 2027. The bank's expansion into new markets such as Ivory Coast, Cameroon, France, Hong Kong and others is expected to help bolster asset growth.
Already, Access Bank is one of Sub-Saharan Africa's biggest banks in terms of asset size. It has also recently positioned itself as a Pan-African bank, with several acquisitions in recent years; including the acquisition of BancABC in 2021.
The company's latest earnings report for the financial year ended December 31st, 2021, show that profit after tax increased by 51.1% to $389.2 million (N160 billion) year on year. Similarly, total assets jumped by 35% to $27.9 billion (N11.7 trillion).
Checks by Business Insider Africa show that Access Bank's stock is currently trading at $0.0242 (N9.95) per share on the Nigerian Exchange.
![Dr Akinwumi A Adesina attends High-level meeting with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs [Image Credit: AfDB Group]](data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf8,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D'http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg'%20width%3D'100'%20height%3D'100'%20data-ring-placeholder%3D'1'%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E "Dr Akinwumi A Adesina attends High-level meeting with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs [Image Credit: AfDB Group]")
