Access Holdings may sell or close at least one overseas banking unit as Nigeria’s largest lender by assets races to meet a Central Bank rule that limits how much capital banks can keep in foreign subsidiaries.
The pressure is regulatory, not a sudden collapse in the group’s international story. The CBN requires that equity investments in overseas subsidiaries do not exceed 10% of total shareholders’ funds. Access Bank’s foreign investments were reported at 19.4% of shareholders’ funds in May almost double the ceiling and the bank was given 12 months to fix the gap.
Chairman Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede said on the sidelines of the African Financial Industry Summit in Luanda that the group had identified at least one underperforming subsidiary that could be disposed of. His test was straightforward: if a unit cannot meet its cost of capital or the strategic reasons it was set up, management should be prepared to exit.
Three Paths to Compliance
Chief Executive Innocent Ike has outlined three ways to get under the limit: pull surplus capital back from overseas subsidiaries, sell minority stakes, and restructure some businesses.
The group has already completed one capital repatriation from six targeted subsidiaries and is talking to regulators in five countries to bring more excess capital home. Aig-Imoukhuede said the bank had aimed to finish by January and now expects to complete the exercise ahead of schedule, before the March deadline.
Portfolio Review, Not a Retreat from Africa
Aig-Imoukhuede stressed that the wider international portfolio remains solid and that the group will keep reviewing subsidiaries for returns and strategic fit. Access has exited markets before when results disappointed. In 2014 it sold a loss-making Ivory Coast unit after earlier CBN restrictions on using parent capital to prop up foreign operations.
The current process is framed as active portfolio management rather than a signal that Africa expansion has failed. Regional presence, the chairman said, still offers growth but only where units clear the cost-of-capital and strategy hurdles.
Ghana Stake Sale Already Done
In July, Access completed the sale of a 7.44% stake in its Ghanaian subsidiary 12.1 million shares on the Ghana Stock Exchange, with clearance from the Bank of Ghana. Buyers included pension funds, institutions and high-net-worth investors. Analysts linked that sale to the same CBN cap on foreign equity holdings.
What It Means for Investors and the Sector
For Access shareholders, the story is about capital discipline under a hard regulatory ceiling. Repatriating surplus funds and exiting weak units can free capital for Nigeria and for stronger markets, but it may also shrink the group’s geographic footprint in the short term.
For the industry, the CBN rule is forcing other banks with large overseas networks to make the same calculation: keep only the subsidiaries that earn their keep, and bring excess capital home. The next few months will show whether Access meets the 10% limit mainly through capital recalls and small stake sales or through a full exit from at least one country.
