Access Bank – Nigeria’s largest lender looking to expand to Asia

Lagos-based Access Bank, one of Africa’s biggest banks, is close to finalizing a regulatory process to launch its first full banking service in Asia in the first quarter of 2024, the chief executive of its holding company told Semafor Africa.

The Asian bank plan is part of a wider global expansion target which includes a strategy to expand more deeply into Francophone Africa, build closer ties with North Africa, and across Europe where it already has wholesale banking operations in London and Paris, which opened in May.

Herbert Wigwe, chief executive of Access Holdings, parent company of Access Bank, said he and his team expect to receive approval from monetary authorities “by this side of Christmas.” Wigwe declined to confirm the country in which the bank would launch in order to avoid preempting local regulators, but he added: “We will definitely be in Asia by the first quarter of next year.”