Access To Diamonds

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THE SPARK EFFECT
“The idea was never
to create a bank that
was just Nigerian. It
would be Nigerian in
ownership but global
in nature, following
best practice.”
Access to
Diamonds:
Herbert Wigwe
Herbert Wigwe has piercing eyes that tell of his brilliance as
a businessman, his experience as a leader and an unfettered
desire for innovation and growth of the African Financial
Industry.
Just before the Knowledge Sharing Session to rub minds with
entrepreneurs and young professionals on the ongoing Access
Bank and Diamond Bank merger, Damilola Oyewusi had a quick
chat with the banking icon.
By Damilola Oyewusi
After thriving through the Soludo
N25 Billion capitalization era,
the recession, and six successful
mergers, there can be no doubts in
the minds of industry experts, Nigerians, and
Africans that Access Bank is currently a top
player in the financial sector with an appetite
that can only be satiated with continuous
improvement.
What started as a 78th ranking in 2003 is today
one of the most reputable institutions in the
country. With six mergers and acquisitions
both in Nigeria and in their other African
subsidiaries to their credit, we wondered if
mergers and acquisitions had always been a
part of the Bank’s business strategy.
“When we started our entrepreneurial
journey in 2002, it was clear to us that the
industry was going to consolidate. We knew
that getting to where we wanted would be
a combination of both organic growth and
inorganic growth.”
To understand the full ramification of
inorganic growth, the company engaged
and sat under the tutelage of one of the
top banks in the world - HSBC (Hongkong
and Shanghai Banking Corporation). This
foresight and preparation ensured a quick
and fortuitous acquisition when the CBN
increased the capital requirement from 2
Billion Naira to 25 Billion in 2005, as the bank
was already primed for inorganic growth
through mergers and acquisitions.
The goal for the bank has always being
to scale fast while improving the services
offered to customers. As Herbert explained,
the institution has always been aspirational
and focused on achieving and maintaining
international standards.
“The idea was never to create a bank that
was just Nigerian. It would be Nigerian in
ownership but global in nature, following
best practice.”
Following the capitalization exercise that
made Access Bank one of the top ten in
the country, they went on to the next level
of increase in scale and efficiency by raising
one billion dollars through a GDR. This
allowed for business expansion in London
and several countries in Africa.
Despite the growth experienced by the
Bank and in the Nigerian financial sector as
a whole, becoming one of the top banks in
Africa still eluded the institution. As he notes
about a country as big as Nigeria, “We don’t
have more than 40 million or 50 million
unique bank accounts. And you have a
population of about 200 million people. This
constrains the size of the market because a
lot of money has not been brought into the
system. If you compare us to South Africa
with a slightly lower GDP than Nigeria, their
banks are bigger. For us to dominate or grow
bigger than most banks in Africa, including
South Africa, we need to do things that will
give us the appropriate scale and scope”
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