Nigerian tycoon Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede's Access to sell up to 25% of African units

Access Holdings Plc, the Nigerian banking group chaired by Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, plans to sell stakes of up to 25% in its African subsidiaries as it works to bring its foreign investments under a ceiling set by the Central Bank of Nigeria.

Oluseyi Kumapayi, deputy managing director in charge of African subsidiaries at Access Bank Plc, the group's main lending arm, said the bank aims to sell minority stakes of as much as a quarter in its units across the continent while keeping control of them.

The bank has already started. It sold 25% plus one share of its South African unit, Access Bank South Africa Ltd., to a Black Economic Empowerment consortium, and has cut its holding in Access Bank Botswana Ltd. to 70%.

Aig-Imoukhuede has said the group has picked out one underperforming foreign subsidiary that it could exit altogether. "Do we have one or two troublesome subsidiaries? I can think of one," he said on Nov. 9 at the African Financial Industry Summit in Luanda, Angola. He did not name the business.

A 10% ceiling

The central bank rule limits a Nigerian bank's equity investments in foreign subsidiaries to 10% of shareholders' funds. Access Bank's foreign banking units had a book value of ₦446.6 billion ($327.2 million) at the end of March, about 20.8% of its shareholders' equity of roughly ₦2.14 trillion ($1.6 billion). Getting to 10% means cutting that exposure by about ₦232 billion ($170 million).

The lender was given 12 months from May to comply. Aig-Imoukhuede said the group set itself a January deadline and expects to finish early.

Selling minority stakes lets Access raise money and shrink its exposure without giving up control of the businesses it spent a decade buying. Group Chief Executive Officer Innocent Ike has also said the group will pull surplus capital back from six foreign units and restructure some operations.

Deals so far

The South African sale was signed on May 30, 2025. The buyers agreed to pay a nominal R116.1 million ($7 million) over three years, a price with a fair value of R93.1 million ($5.6 million) at the time of the deal. Access booked a ₦1.5 billion ($1.1 million) loss on the sale in its own accounts. The unit lost ₦21.68 billion ($15.9 million) in 2025.

In Botswana, Access sold 59 million shares in its listed unit for 116 million pula, about $8.6 million at the time, cutting its stake from 78.15% to 70% to meet the Botswana Stock Exchange's rule that at least 30% of a listed company's shares be held by the public.

In July, Access sold 12,085,318 shares, or 7.44%, of Access Bank (Ghana) Plc after approval from the Bank of Ghana.

Kumapayi took up his current role on Oct. 27, after six years as executive director for African subsidiaries. He was the bank's group chief financial officer from 2007 to 2020.

Aig-Imoukhuede's stake

Access Bank operates in Nigeria, 15 other African countries and five markets outside the continent. Access Holdings reported profit after tax of ₦474.17 billion ($347.4 million) for the nine months through September, up 6% from a year earlier.

Aig-Imoukhuede, 60, led the 2002 takeover of Access Bank with the late Herbert Wigwe and ran it as chief executive until December 2013. He returned as chairman of Access Holdings in March 2024 after Wigwe died in a helicopter crash in California. He held about 4.998 billion Access Holdings shares, or 9.37% of the company, according to the group's 2024 annual report.

Figures were converted at ₦1,365 and R16.6 to the dollar.