Nigeria’s major financial institution, Access Bank Plc disclosed on monday that it has launched a five-year strategy to achieve 30 million customer- base that would rank it as number one bank in Nigeria on returns on equity.
Addressing capital market community the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), Chief Executive Officer and Group Managing Director of Access Bank, Herbert Wigwe, said: “The new five-year strategy will accelerate this growth story to position Access Bank as the number one Nigerian bank by 2022 and create a Universal Payments Gateway to dominate international trade and inter-African payments.”
Wigwe further stated that five years ago Access Bank set an ambitious goal to attain top three positions in its chosen market. That has been achieved, he added.
“We are a strong, diversified institution with a consolidated top tier position in our sector”. He stressed.
The Group Managing Director said it is the latest in a series of transformative strategies that have resulted in sustained growth.
He informed that from 2013 to November 2017, Access Bank has increased its total assets by 18 percent and delivered shareholder returns of 90 percent.
According to him, the bank has also grown its customer base from 90,000 in 2002 to over eight million in 2017 and in the same period opened 351 new branches.
The bank chief disclosed that the new strategy has six strategic levers, which are Digitally led, Retail banking growth and consolidation in wholesale markets, Customer focused, Analytics driven, with robust risk management, Strong global collaboration in key gateway markets as well as the creation of a universal payments gateway.
He explained that to deliver the transformation, Access Bank will adopt a new organisational structure, adding that the retail bank will have a customer segment focus, driven by digital and payments.
He revealed that the corporate bank will build deep sector expertise and deploy global relationship managers.
According to him, Access Bank’s subsidiaries will be organised around strategic clusters, with strong collaboration between them to secure trade finance and correspondent banking. He revealed that the bank’s transformation programme will be underpinned by robust risk management together with high levels of automation to enhance the compliance and risk functions and drive customer insights.
Wigwe stated that internationally, it will develop an integrated global franchise by strategically developing its presence in key African markets, enhancing collaboration in global financial gateways including London and New York, Asia and the Middle East, and strengthening its trade hubs in India, Dubai and China.
He noted that a strengthened presence in key African markets, and the creation of Universal Payments Gateway combined with an integrated global franchise, ideally positions Access Bank to be Africa’s Gateway to the World.