One of Nigeria’s multinational commercial banks, Access Bank, has announced plans to expand its operations to Asia in the first quarter (Q1) of 2024.
According to the Bank, the expansion to Asia is part of a global expansion plan, which includes a strategy to expand more deeply into Francophone Africa and build closer ties with North Africa and Europe.
In his remark on the bank’s recent plan, CEO of Access Bank Dr. Herbert Wigwe, expressed concern that Africa could be cut off from the global financial system if they do not expand strategically, hence the need for the bank to expand its operations across the globe.
In his words, “You cannot blame European or American banks who chose not to be here. We blame ourselves if we are not big enough to support our people. We told ourselves, that we’ll keep pushing that wall until we ensure we are on the global stage.
“We will be in London, we will be in the US, we will be in Hong Kong, we will be in all of these markets to ensure that Nigerians are not disintermediated”.
Wigwe views an Asian bank as supporting overall network effects based on the existing activities of its clients. Above all, he stressed that access to pools of capital would not be possible in African markets.
He further said that he and his team expect to get approval from monetary authorities soon. He, however, declined the Asian country in which the bank would launch to avoid preempting local regulators.
Access Bank, in a bid to be a notable player in the banking sector, has been expanding rapidly across the continent over the last half-decade. More recently, the bank snapped up the banking operations of Standard Chartered in Angola, Tanzania, Cameroon, Sierra Leone, and the Gambia.
