Access Holdings Plc has announced plans to become the largest payment settlement platform in Africa and the third in the world.
Group Managing Director of the Corporation, Herbert Wigwe, said this at the statutory meeting of its shareholders on Tuesday in Lagos.
Wigwe said that the corporation would soon launch a new company Hydrogen Payment Services Company Limited to achieve this purpose.
He said that Hydrogen in partnership with some DFIs would be responsible for payment across the continent.
“We share the fact with you that we wanted to be known as Africa’s gateway to the world and what that meant was that we are going to be responsible for payments across the entire continent, irrespective of where you are and where you’re transferring money from.
“We are going to support intra-African trade, which is a big problem today.”
“The bank cannot do this alone because this are very specialist skills and it will allow us to be able to ensure that there are settlements even in countries where we don’t have a physical presence.
“The idea is that wherever you are in the world, if you’re making a transfer to anybody across the continent, one out of every three transactions that come into the continent will be settled on Access Bank’s platform,” Wigwe said.
He, however, assured shareholders that though this business would generate commissions and fees but it would not lead to significant credit risk.
“They do have operational risk, obviously, but we do have strong compliance process and technology platform which we will enhance to ensure that operational risks will be significantly mitigated,” Wigwe noted.
He added that plans are underway for the establishment of more subsidiaries, among which are insurance brokerage and lending platform targeted at youths, among others.
Wigwe assured the shareholders that the Corporation would increase its earnings base as it continues to spread it’s tentacles across the continent.
“We will continue to spread across Europe to make sure that at the end of the day, perhaps 10 years from now, we would have created a very strong diversified entity, not just relying on Nigeria or Africa but having a broad diversified income base with good quality earnings coming from countries where the inflation rates are less than that of the country.
“This will make us much more stronger franchise than any other financial institution in the continent,” Wigwe said.
Meanwhile, shareholders at the meeting unanimously adopted the statutory report of the Holdings in compliance with the provisions of Section 235 of the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA).
