Access Holdings posts record N743bn profit in FY2025

Access Holdings posted a record N743 billion ($540 million) in profit after tax for 2025, a 16% increase from the N642.2 billion it earned in 2024, positioning it as one of the few Nigerian banks to grow its bottom line in a year when most of the country's largest lenders reported declining profits, according to results released on May 1.

The result makes Access Holdings an outlier among the FUGAZ group, the informal label for Nigeria's 5 biggest banks, most of which saw profits shrink in 2025 as foreign exchange gains that inflated 2024 earnings failed to repeat and impairment charges climbed. Access moved in the opposite direction, partly because its FX book performed differently and partly because the group's expanding geographic footprint across 3 continents generated a broader earnings base.

Pre-tax profit rose to N1 trillion from N867 billion in 2024. Gross earnings climbed 13.3% to N5.5 trillion.

What drove the record

The standout line was fair value and FX gains, which more than doubled to N1 trillion for the year. That surge, driven by sharp increases in both net realised and unrealised foreign exchange gains on unhedged items, contributed significantly to the profit improvement. Net interest income, the bank's core lending revenue, rose a more modest 7% to N1.4 trillion. Net fee and commission income climbed from N415.2 billion to N585.1 billion, reflecting higher transaction volumes across the group's expanded customer base.

The cost of credit risk remained elevated. Access Holdings booked N523.6 billion in impairment charges for the year, more than double the prior-year figure, reflecting deterioration in parts of the loan book and the group's conservative approach to provisioning as it absorbed acquired portfolios in new markets.

Which businesses did the heavy lifting

Access Bank Nigeria and The Access Bank UK together accounted for 89.2% of the group's bottom line, confirming that the parent institution and its London subsidiary remain the dominant earnings engines even as the pan-African footprint expands.

2 subsidiaries dragged on the result. The South African unit posted a net loss of N21.7 billion, and the Kenyan operation recorded a loss of N12.2 billion, with both markets carrying high operating costs relative to their current earnings power. Total assets grew to N51.6 trillion from N41.5 trillion, a 24% increase that reflects both organic balance sheet growth and the contribution of acquisitions completed during the year.

A year of significant buying

2025 was an active acquisition year for the group. Access Holdings picked up a 74.9% interest in Standard Chartered Bank's Gambian subsidiary for N9.5 billion ($6.1 million). It also acquired Standard Chartered's consumer, private and business banking unit in Tanzania for N14 billion ($9.1 million), absorbing a book of retail customers and a branch network that the British lender decided it no longer wanted in that market.

The largest transaction was the acquisition of a 76% stake in AfrAsia Bank Limited in Mauritius through Access Bank UK for N611.1 billion ($397.6 million). AfrAsia is the fourth largest bank in Mauritius by assets, with total assets of more than $5.7 billion at its last financial year end and a net profit after tax of $152.4 million. The deal gives Access Holdings a foothold in one of Africa's most sophisticated financial services jurisdictions, positioned at the intersection of African and Asian capital flows.

Taken together, those 3 deals extended Access Holdings' operational geography, continued the pattern of absorbing assets from departing European banking groups and reinforced the group's position as one of the most acquisitive financial institutions on the continent.

The leadership context

Access Holdings enters 2026 under Innocent Ike, who took over as substantive Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer in August 2025, replacing Bolaji Agbede who had guided the group through 18 months in an acting capacity following the February 2024 death of Herbert Wigwe. Wigwe died in a helicopter crash in California, along with his wife, his son and former NGX Group chairman Abimbola Ogunbanjo.

Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, Wigwe's longtime business partner and co-founder of Tengen Family Office, returned as non-executive chairman in March 2024 and has remained in that role as the group navigated the leadership transition and completed its recapitalisation obligations under the CBN's N500 billion minimum capital requirement for international banking licence holders.

Roosevelt Ogbonna, who leads Access Bank Plc as the group's flagship banking subsidiary, stepped down from the HoldCo board in August 2025 to comply with the CBN's corporate governance guidelines limiting financial holding company boards to 9 directors. He continues to run Access Bank's day-to-day operations.

The record profit provides the new leadership team with a strong platform heading into 2026. Whether the FX gains that contributed so heavily to the 2025 result recur will depend on the naira's trajectory and the composition of the group's unhedged foreign currency book. The organic growth story in net interest income and fees, which grew at a less dramatic but more durable pace, is the more reliable indicator of where the group's core earnings power currently sits.