Access Holdings Plc has assured shareholders of the Board’s commitment to resuming dividend payments as soon as the relevant regulatory conditions are satisfied, saying the era of growth for growth’s sake is over.

Nairametrics reported that addressing shareholders at the 4th Annual General Meeting held in Lagos on Wednesday, June 10, 2026, the Group Chairman, Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, said that now is the time of extracting value created over the years to maximize returns to shareholders, pointing to the bank’s N1.007 trillion profit and N51.56 trillion balance sheet as evidence of a strategy built on sustainable value creation.

According to him, Access Holdings’ N1.007 trillion profit and N51.56 trillion asset base in 2025 reflect a deliberate focus on long-term resilience rather than short-term earnings gains.

Addressing shareholder concerns on several fronts, including the group’s non-payment of a cash dividend for the 2025 financial year, the chairman stated that efforts are being made to clear the impediments to dividend payment.

On the dividend, the Chairman was direct: “The non-payment does not reflect diminished earnings capacity but rather aligns with supervisory expectations and prudent capital management.”

“Our approach is clear: capital retained today must translate into value delivered tomorrow and sustainable returns to our shareholders,” he said, adding that the Board is committed to resuming dividend payment as soon as regulatory conditions are satisfied.

“The defining test of a financial institution is not merely its capacity for growth, but its ability to grow profitably, sustainably, and with discipline over time,” Aig-Imoukhuede said.

“Our focus remains on building a business that is not only growing but improving in the quality and sustainability of its earnings.”

The Chairman presented the group’s 2025 full-year performance as one of the strongest in its history in absolute terms, even as specific line items raised investor questions:

Profit before tax: N1.007 trillion — making Access Holdings the only FUGAZ bank to grow both gross earnings and PBT in double digits in 2025

Total assets: N51.56 trillion — a substantial expansion reflecting the group’s growing pan-African and domestic franchise

Customer deposits: increased strongly year-on-year, reflecting sustained franchise momentum and deepening customer trust

Impairment charge was elevated in 2025 following the deliberate exit from CBN regulatory forbearance positions coupled with regulatory alignment and compliance considerations within the banking subsidiary.

Beyond the financial results, the AGM underscored a broader strategic shift that Aig-Imoukhuede described as the evolution from building an institution of scale to delivering sustainable value — captured in the group’s new strategic framework, “From Scale to Value.”

Central to that evolution is the diversification of Access Holdings beyond traditional banking.

The group highlighted growing contributions from Access ARM Pensions, Access Insurance Brokers, Oxygen X Finance, and Hydrogen Payments — platforms spanning pension management, insurance brokerage, consumer lending, and digital payments.

These non-banking verticals, the Chairman said, are expanding the group’s earnings mix and scalability, reducing dependence on net interest income while positioning the group to capture the next wave of financial services growth in Nigeria and across Africa.

The AGM also flagged what the Chairman described as significant unrealised value within the group’s international subsidiaries.

He acknowledged that the market has not fully priced the contribution of Access Bank UK, and other offshore operations to the group’s intrinsic worth.

Closing the gap between reported earnings and cost of equity was identified as the central challenge in translating the group’s scale into shareholder returns.

On leadership, the Chairman confirmed that Innocent C. Ike’s appointment as Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer — as well as the appointment of Ibironke Adeyemi as an Independent Non-Executive Director — were executed with strategic continuity and stakeholder alignment as the primary objectives.

Access Holdings Plc is the parent company of Access Bank Plc — Nigeria’s largest bank by total assets — and operates across more than 20 countries with over 60 million customers.

The group’s N51.56 trillion in total assets as of December 2025 places it at the top of Nigeria’s banking sector by balance sheet size.

Its 2025 profit before tax of N1.007 trillion, while lower than Zenith Bank’s N1.26 trillion, represented the strongest growth trajectory among the FUGAZ banks.

With gross earnings rising 13.3% to N5.53 trillion, Access is the only FUGAZ member to grow both gross earnings and PBT in double digits during the year.

The group’s Access Bank UK subsidiary posted a pre-tax profit of N288.6 billion in 2025, the highest among FUGAZ UK operations, which the Chairman cited at the AGM as one example of the international value that has yet to be fully recognised in the group’s market valuation.