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Access Holdings expects its dividend payout ratio will be much higher going forward, driven by the company entering a consolidation and optimization phase after years of aggressive expansion.
“Access is entering its next phase of growth, which is about consolidating all investments made over the years,” Innocent Ike, the Group Managing Director and CEO of Access Holdings said.
The dividend payout ratio is a key measure of how much of a company’s net income is distributed to shareholders.
Access Holdings’ dividend payout ratio has averaged 26% over the past couple of years.
Access Holdings has been in an aggressive expansion phase, acquiring banks and subsidiaries across Africa and beyond (including in Zambia, Angola, and the UK).
This period required the bank to retain a large portion of its earnings (keeping the payout ratio low) to fund these acquisitions and meet increased regulatory capital requirements.
Management has however signaled a move into a “Consolidation” phase. This means the focus shifts from spending cash on new acquisitions to maximizing efficiency and revenue from the existing, recently integrated entities.
As a result, once the primary funding for expansion is complete, the need to retain earnings for high-growth capital expenditure (CapEx) or new acquisition funding decreases, allowing a larger portion of profits to be returned to shareholders.
Access Holdings is seeing increasing success in its Africa operations ex Nigeria.
Pan Africa profit before tax (PBT) rose by 68.7% to N242.49 billion in September 2025, from N143.7 billion as at September 2024, according to data from the Q3 financial statement seen by MoneyCentral.
The performance was driven by sustained growth in both interest and fees and commission, reflecting the strength of the Group’s diversified earnings base and improved performance from core operations across its banking and non-banking businesses.
From an African standpoint, Access Holdings now ranks 8th by total assets, dwarfing the likes of United Bank for Africa, UBA ($21.94 billion), Zenith ($21.061 billion), and FirstHoldCo ($17.72 billion), according to data from Chapel Hill Denham.
With total assets of $35.38 billion, Access Holdings is positioned just below Bank of Africa ($41.78 billion) and Banque Centrale Populaire ($53.52 billion), firmly establishing itself among the top-tier banking institutions across Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and the MENA region, according to the research house.
Access Holdings also leads other Nigerian Banks with operations in Europe in terms of profit while United Bank for Africa (UBA) is the top player in the Rest of Africa region.
Access Holdings’ profit before tax (PBT) of N195.57 billion from its European operations beat all others as at the nine months’ period to September 2025, data compiled by MoneyCentral shows.
“We expect the dividend payout ratio will be much more going forward, distribution will be much higher and dividend payment in nominal terms will be much higher,” Roosevelt Ogbonna, chief executive officer of Access Bank Plc said.
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