Access Bank grows customer base to 42m — Wigwe

The Group Managing Directing, Herbert Wigwe, said the lender grew its customer base to 42 million amid severe competition in the banking sector.

He disclosed this during the bank’s 2021 investment and engagement forum tagged ‘Realigning for growth’ which held virtually.

He said due to multiple accounts opened by some customers, the bank’s account holders rose to 46 million.

“Our retail banking business has grown consistently across all income lines, driven by strong focus on consumer lending, payments and remittances, digitisation of customer journeys, and customer acquisition at scale,” he said.

He said the bank was also driving group revenue growth through retail expansion.

New digital customers acquired was 2.6 million, while new subscription to its mobile banking platform was 3.2 million, he said.

He said its newly issued debit bank stood at N6 million, while savings accounts deposit was N1.23 trillion.

“The bank has nine million USSD (*901#) users, while unique users on the mobile app platform was 9.5 million,” he said.

While speaking about investment opportunities in Nigeria and Africa, he said the bank would move to capture these opportunities by transitioning to a HoldCo structure.

“Through this reorganisation, we will create new product revenues without taking additional risk for the enterprise, ensure diversification of earnings, and support outside of Africa expansion,” he said.

According to him, the HoldCo structure would consist of the Access Bank Group, payment business, consumer lending & agency banking, and insurance brokerage.

He said the insurance subsidiary would adopt a dynamic and creative approach to deliver value-added services focused to meet customer insurance needs.

Access Bank, he added, was in partnership with Coronation Insurance to offer insurance products to the bank’s customers.

He also said that Access Bank-Coronation Insurance bancassurance was already available in Nigeria and Ghana.

Wigwe noted that the bank had maintained strong capital levels despite investments for growth, accumulating capital over time.

The group managing director said its African expansion strategy was bolstered by presence and entry into key global financial hubs.

“Across Africa, there is an opportunity for Access bank to expand to high-potential markets, leveraging the benefits of AfCFTA,” he said.