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Nigeria’s Access Bank says its N365bn capital raise to be fully digital

Published

7 months ago

April 21, 2024

Access Holdings, which is the parent company of Nigeria’s Access Bank, has revealed that its N365bn rights issue will be done entirely digitally.

In a notice sent to the Nigerian Exchange Limited, the holding company said the bank wanted to raise N365bn through a rights issue to strengthen its capital base, drive growth, and be ready to take advantage of new possibilities in the financial sector.

The bank also planned to raise $1.5bn in capital through the sale of stock, quasi-equity, and debt. Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, the head of the Holdco, told reporters at the second Annual General Meeting that digital technology would play an interesting role in the bank’s efforts to raise capital.

He said, “If you remember the 2004 capital raising, we went around Nigeria. It led to the democratisation of our capital market, others followed suit. The number of shareholders of banks and the capital market increased as a result of that effort.

“This time around, we have digital technology that we are going to deploy fully. There have been public offers that have leveraged digital technology but using Access Bank’s capacity, the NGX’s digital capacity, we are going to do some interesting things. This rights issue, we have shareholders and each of them would be able to make that investment decision just by touching their phones. That way, the issue of dilution and concerns that they may have about participation would be dealt with.”

Aig-Imoukhuede told shareholders about the time in 2004 when the banking group raised money and stressed that they were up to the job.

He said, “We’re moving on to the rights issue resolution. At this junction, I think we’ll take one minute to crave your indulgence as I appreciate you all for the support you have given our predecessor company, Access Bank, and of course now Access Holdings.

“We have sought to raise capital. The amount that we mention today is high and significant and the capital-raising effort that we are pursuing is a significant step into the future. I would like to remind shareholders that between 2004 and 2007, our team when I was CEO raised $2bn of common equity capital. Therefore, come 2024, Access Bank is much older, much wiser, much stronger, larger and significantly respected by the capital market, really raising over N300bn is not much of a challenge.”

There are more than 700 branches and service sites for Access Bank on three continents. The company does business in 20 countries and has more than 65 million users. Over 500,000 people save money at FTB, and more than 42,000 people take money from them. More than 40% of these people are women.

Related Topics:Access Bank Featured Nigeria

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IMF mission concludes 4th loan program assessment in Egypt

Published

4 days ago

November 22, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

Following the completion of a recent visit to Egypt, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has announced that its mission had achieved significant strides in policy talks aimed at concluding the fourth review of the IMF loan program.

The review is the fourth in Egypt’s most recent 46-month IMF loan program, which was authorised in 2022 and increased to $8 billion this year following an economic crisis characterised by high inflation and chronic foreign exchange shortages. It may unleash more than $1.2 billion in financing.

Along with reaffirming its commitment to maintain a flexible exchange rate system, the IMF stated that Egypt “has implemented key reforms to preserve macroeconomic stability,” including the unification of the currency rate that facilitated imports.

Earlier on Wednesday, Egypt’s Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly said Cairo has asked the IMF to modify the targets for the programme not only for this year, but for its full duration, he added without giving more details.

“Discussions will continue over the coming days to finalize agreement on the remaining policies and reforms that could support the completion of the fourth review,” the IMF added in its statement.

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Kenya seeks $750m from World Bank, obtains $200m from AfDB— Official

Published

5 days ago

November 20, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

The head of debt management for the finance ministry told Reuters that Kenya had obtained a $200 million loan from the African Development Bank (AfDB) and was negotiating a fresh $750 million loan with the World Bank.

After being forced to abandon proposed tax rises costing more than 346 billion shillings ($2.68 billion) in June due to fatal demonstrations, the East African nation’s administration, which has been grappling with significant debt, has been frantically seeking fresh funding.

The Finance Ministry’s public debt management office director general, Raphael Owino, told Reuters that the IMF’s October clearance of the seventh and eighth reviews, which opened the door for a $606 million loan tranche, had aided the ministry’s talks for more loans.

“The World Bank is coming on board, riding on the back of IMF receipts,” Owino said. “The AfDB is already on board.”

The discussions for more assistance, which came under the World Bank’s “Development Policy Operations” (DPO) with the government, were confirmed by a representative at the organization’s Kenya office.

“The amount of the current (loan) is yet to be determined. The amount will also depend on the implementation of the policy reforms agreed upon,” the spokesperson told Reuters, adding that past DPO loans averaged about $750 million.

In May, the World Bank approved the latest round of DPO loans, totalling $1.2 billion.

According to a statement made last month by Finance Minister John Mbadi, Kenya has set a foreign borrowing goal of 168 billion shillings for the fiscal year ending in June 2025.