Shareholders Back Access Holdings’ Long-Term Strategy, Express Confidence in Future Returns Despite Dividend Pause
Shareholders of Access Holdings Plc have reaffirmed their confidence in the company’s long-term value creation strategy, expressing optimism that Nigeria’s largest financial services group is well positioned to deliver stronger and more sustainable returns as it consolidates its pan-African and global investments.
The endorsement followed the company’s Annual General Meeting (AGM), where investors threw their weight behind the board’s strategic direction despite the decision not to declare a dividend for the 2025 financial year.
According to shareholders quoted by The Nation newspaper, the group’s performance over the past 15 months demonstrates the strength of its fundamentals and reinforces confidence in its transition from a strategy centred on expansion and investment to one focused on long-term value creation and improved shareholder returns.
Access Holdings, which has nearly one million shareholders, boasts one of the largest shareholder bases in Africa. More than three-quarters of its investors are retail minority shareholders, who represent a significant constituency within the financial services group.
Domestic retail investors also account for nearly half of transactions on the Nigerian stock market.
The shareholders expressed confidence that the company would successfully leverage its strong financial foundation to generate sustainable returns while advancing its ambition of becoming Africa’s gateway to the global financial system.
Founding Coordinator and Leader of the Independent Shareholders Association of Nigeria (ISAN), Sir Sunny Nwosu, said investors had no reason to doubt the future of Access Holdings, citing the institution’s remarkable transformation from a mid-tier bank into one of Nigeria’s largest financial institutions.
He explained that shareholders’ acceptance of the board’s decision to withhold dividends for the 2025 financial year reflected their trust in the company’s leadership, built on both its impressive historical performance and expectations for future growth.
Similarly, the President of the Association for the Advancement of Rights of Nigerian Shareholders (AARNS), Dr Faruk Umar, said Access Holdings had consistently earned the confidence of investors through its sustained performance.
According to him, shareholders were looking beyond immediate dividend payments and were instead focused on the broader strategic direction outlined by management.
“We’ve no cause to worry about Access Holdings. True, dividend is important to us shareholders, but when you take everything together, it is like keeping your money in a compounding interest account – you’re going to get the bumper return at the end,” Umar stated.
National Chairman of the New Dimension Shareholders Association, Mr Patrick Ajudua, also commended the company’s growth trajectory, highlighting that gross earnings increased to N5.53 trillion in 2025 while total assets surpassed N51.53 trillion.
He said shareholders remained satisfied with the company’s overall performance despite the absence of dividend payments, noting that the board had clearly explained the decision as a necessary measure to comply with the regulatory requirements of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Ajudua added that shareholders had nevertheless urged the board and management to pay greater attention to impairment charges on financial assets and continue implementing cost optimisation measures.
Chairman of the Progressive Shareholders Association of Nigeria, Boniface Okezie, also described Access Holdings’ overall performance as strong, stressing that dividend payment alone should not be used as the sole benchmark for assessing a company’s success.
He observed that with earnings per share standing at N13.48, the company possessed the financial capacity to reward shareholders, but explained that regulatory restrictions affecting the banking subsidiary ultimately constrained the holding company’s ability to declare dividends.
“As a holding company, the performance of the bank, which serves as its principal subsidiary, significantly impacts the overall situation. If the bank cannot distribute dividends, it naturally limits the holding company’s ability to do so as well,” Okezie explained.
He appealed to regulators to consider the broader impact of policy decisions on investors, emphasising that dividends remain an important indicator of corporate success and investor confidence.
Okezie also encouraged the board to consider declaring an interim dividend later in the current financial year, possibly by September, to reassure shareholders and partially compensate for the absence of a final dividend.
National Coordinator of ISAN, Mr Moses Igbrude, likewise expressed confidence in the group’s earnings outlook, describing Access Holdings as a well-structured financial institution with the capacity to generate substantial long-term value for investors.
He said shareholders remained convinced that management possessed the expertise required to maximise the group’s assets and achieve the financial projections communicated to investors.
The confidence expressed by shareholders comes on the back of another strong financial performance by the group.
Access Holdings recorded a 16.2 per cent increase in profit before tax to N1.01 trillion in 2025, driven by significant growth in core banking operations. Interest income rose to N1.36 trillion, while net fees and commission income increased by 41 per cent to N585 billion.
Operating income climbed by 23.9 per cent to N3.17 trillion, while gross earnings rose from N4.88 trillion in 2024 to N5.53 trillion in 2025.
The group’s balance sheet also strengthened considerably, with total assets expanding to N51.56 trillion and shareholders’ funds increasing to N4.33 trillion by the end of December 2025.
Operational efficiency improved as the cost-to-income ratio declined from 56.7 per cent to 51.7 per cent, while Return on Average Equity (ROAE) remained robust at 18.4 per cent.
Despite earnings per share reaching N13.48, shareholders approved the board’s recommendation to prioritise structural realignment of the group’s foreign investments in line with domestic regulatory requirements, leading to the suspension of dividend payments for the year.
The company also maintained its strong momentum into 2026.
For the first quarter of 2026, Access Holdings reported a pre-tax profit of N272.1 billion, compared with N222.78 billion recorded during the corresponding period of 2025.
Total assets rose further to N54.44 trillion, while shareholders’ equity improved to N4.4 trillion, placing the group on course to surpass the N1 trillion profit milestone once again.
Speaking during the AGM in Lagos, Chairman of Access Holdings Plc, Mr Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, reaffirmed the company’s commitment to long-term value creation, stronger balance sheet resilience and disciplined growth despite operating in an increasingly dynamic business environment.
He stressed that the true measure of a successful financial institution lies not merely in achieving growth, but in growing profitably, sustainably and with discipline.
“Periods of economic uncertainty often reveal more about an institution than periods of uninterrupted growth. Our focus remains on building a business that is not only growing, but improving in the quality, resilience and sustainability of its earnings,” he said.
Aig-Imoukhuede explained that the company’s new strategic direction, tagged “From Scale to Value,” represents the next stage of Access Holdings’ corporate evolution.
“Our strategy, From Scale to Value, reflects the natural evolution of our journey. Scale created opportunity; value creation is how we fully realise it,” he stated.
According to him, while the group continues to generate strong returns, management remains focused on ensuring that earnings per share consistently exceed the cost of capital, thereby unlocking sustainable value for shareholders.
He further noted that considerable unrealised value exists across the group’s international subsidiaries, adding that management is committed to improving market recognition of those intrinsic assets over time.
“Our approach is clear: capital retained today must translate into greater value tomorrow and sustainable returns for our shareholders. Our responsibility is to justify the confidence of our shareholders by building an institution that endures, one defined by clarity of purpose, discipline of execution and sustainable value creation over time,” Aig-Imoukhuede said.
