Lower Impairments Lift Access Holdings Pre-tax Profit To N667.4bn

Access Holdings Plc has reported a profit before tax of N667.4 billion for the nine months ended September 30, 2026, driven by a sharp fall in impairment charges and growth in net interest income after impairment and net fee and commission income.

The Group said the performance reflects continued progress under its Scale-to-Value agenda, with core earnings showing resilience despite higher operating expenses and lower other operating income during the period

The Company’s nine months results showed that profit before tax rose 8.3 per cent to N667.36 billion, while profit after tax increased 5.9 per cent to N474.17 billion. For the third quarter alone, profit before tax surged 52.26 per cent to N253.23 billion from N166.32 billion in Q3 2025.

The Group filed its nine months 2026 and H1 2026 interim financial statements on the Nigerian Exchange.

Interest income rose 6.9 per cent to N3.10 trillion, while interest expense grew 10.1 per cent to N1.81 trillion, leaving net interest income up 2.7 per cent to N1.29 trillion.

The major driver of profit growth was a sharp drop in credit costs. Impairment charges fell 73.5 per cent to N92.91 billion from N349.99 billion in the corresponding period of 2025, lifting net interest income after impairment by 32.1 per cent to N1.20 trillion from N907.95 billion.

Operating expenses rose 11.8 per cent to N1.30 trillion and total other operating income fell 40.8 per cent to N234.53 billion, leaving total operating income 3.2 per cent lower at N2.06 trillion from N2.13 trillion.

The nine-month cost-to-income ratio stood at 63.13 per cent, against 51.7 per cent reported for full year 2025 and 65.2 per cent reported for H1 2026, indicating some improvement from the half-year level but still elevated.

Group managing director and chief executive officer, Innocent Ike, said the performance demonstrated the resilience of the Group’s core earnings base.

“The significant reduction in impairment charges, together with growth in net interest income after impairment and net fee and commission income, demonstrates the resilience of our core earnings base,” Ike said.

He anchored the Group’s Scale-to-Value agenda on five priorities: execution capacity, risk governance and regulatory compliance, capital discipline, operating efficiency and earnings quality.

Total assets rose 1.7 per cent to N52.60 trillion at 30 September 2026 from a restated N51.71 trillion at December 31, 2025. Customer deposits increased 6.6 per cent to N36.85 trillion and loans and advances to customers grew 7.4 per cent to N14.33 trillion, while shareholders’ funds were broadly unchanged at N4.49 trillion.

The Banking Group accounted for 96.0 per cent of Group profit before tax. Within it, operations outside Nigeria contributed 82.2 per cent of profit before tax, with International Banking subsidiaries at 43.7 per cent, Rest of Africa at 38.5 per cent and Nigeria at 17.8 per cent.

On regulatory compliance, the Group has identified capital recalls from six banking subsidiaries to meet Section 19(8)(c) of BOFIA, which limits the Bank’s investment in subsidiaries to 10 per cent of shareholders’ funds, with one recall complete, shareholder approvals obtained in four of the remaining five and regulatory approvals progressing, and it expects completion within the Central Bank of Nigeria’s prescribed timeline to remove the regulatory constraint on dividend distributions, subject to financial position, distributable reserves and regulatory approval.