Access Holdings Plc’s London-based banking unit made more than twice as much pretax profit as the group’s Nigerian bank in the first nine months of 2026.
The Access Bank UK Ltd. earned pretax profit of N364.19 billion, up 86% from a year earlier, while Access Bank Nigeria earned N147.89 billion, down from N234.16 billion, the 9Months, 2026 financial statement shows.
The UK unit’s share of combined pretax profit across the 22 reporting entities rose to 42.1% from 27.7%. Nigeria’s share fell to 17.1% from 33.2%, and about 83% of combined entity profit now comes from outside the home market, according to MoneyCentral calculations.
Access Subsidiary Investments
At company level, Access Holdings carried N1.18 trillion of investments in subsidiaries at September 30, unchanged from December.
Of this amount, N594.82 billion is in Access Bank Plc and N452.83 billion is held directly in The Access Bank UK, according to Note 27(c) of its 9Months financial statement.
Access Bank Plc carries a further N444.98 billion in its own foreign subsidiaries, including N163.92 billion in the UK bank. That brings the total cost of the UK investment to about N616.75 billion, the largest in the group.
The only change during the period was Ghana.
Its carrying cost fell to N30.54 billion from N32.20 billion after Access Bank sold part of its stake, cutting ownership to 88.60% from 93.40%.
A N18.58 billion deferred consideration for Access Bank Tanzania is still outstanding.
Ranking by Operating Income
Access Bank Nigeria remained the largest earner of operating income at N823.17 billion, but this was 29.3% lower than a year earlier.
The UK unit doubled to N603.54 billion after consolidating Mauritius’s AfrAsia Bank and Britain’s Zempler Bank, the filing shows. Zambia moved ahead of Ghana into third place. while Kenya’s operating income fell 80% to N11.60 billion.
Bottom-line
Access Bank Nigeria made a nine-month return of 20.7% on its N594.82 billion cost, while Zambia, Ghana, DR Congo and Sierra Leone each earned more than their original investment in nine months. Annualised, Nigeria’s return on equity was about 7.3%, against 17.6% for the UK unit, on MoneyCentral calculations.
However, part of the UK’s rise comes from acquisitions and accounting. Its income includes the N27.28 billion bargain-purchase gain on Zempler and nine months of AfrAsia’s earnings, so it is not like-for-like with 2025.
Nigeria’s decline is linked to the N148.36 billion hedge loss in the H1 accounts, a one-off that may not recur. The weak spots remain East Africa, where Kenya lost money and Tanzania earned only 14.7% on its cost, and South Africa, which is profitable again but has not yet earned back its N66.39 billion investment.
Access earnings have also shifted towards entities that pay out in pounds and other foreign currencies, which is good for its diversification efforts, however FX volatility in African operations could have an impact on profit if the currency moves are severe.
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