Access Bank, a subsidiary of Access Holdings, a financial services group with a market capitalisation of ₦1.28 trillion, has completed the acquisition of Standard Chartered Bank’s operations in Angola and Sierra Leone. These acquisitions are designed to improve the bank’s corporate and SMEs’ banking shares in the two markets.
“The combinations represent another significant step towards our broader vision of becoming the World’s Most Respected African Bank,” said Roosevelt Ogbonna, Managing Director of the Bank in an NGX filing dated November 27, 2024.
The bank is actively pursuing further expansion opportunities, with plans to acquire Standard Chartered’s subsidiaries in Cameroon, the Gambia, and Tanzania.
The banking group that boasts over 60 million customers across three continents has been on an acquisition drive as far back as 2018. This aggressive growth is fueled by Standard Chartered’s decision to exit seven countries in Africa and the Middle East and shift focus to faster-growing markets in the region.
In 2022, the European lender planned to fully exit markets in Angola, Cameroon, Gambia, Jordan, Lebanon, Sierra Leone and Zimbabwe, by offering them up for sale. Additionally, it closed its retail banking operations in Tanzania and Ivory Coast to focus solely on corporate banking. These decisions have been favourable for Access Holdings, which has latched onto the opportunity as a means for expansion.
In June 2024, the bank acquired African Banking Corporation Holdings Limited (ABC) in Tanzania, merging it with Standard Chartered’s consumer, private, and business banking operations. Condia exclusively reported that the total consideration for this deal is ₦23.32 billion ($13 million), payable over three years and consolidating the lender’s footprint in East Africa.
