Access Holdings Plc
“Can a legacy Nigerian bank restructure into a pan-African financial holding company and become the diversified financial-services champion for the continent?”
Founded2022
HQLagos, Nigeria
IndustryBank / National
The story
Access Bank began in 1989 as a Nigerian commercial bank and listed on the NSE in 1998. In 2022 the group restructured into Access Holdings Plc — a non-operating financial holding company regulated by the CBN — to move 'beyond banking' into payments (Hydrogen), pensions (Access ARM Pensions), insurance brokerage (Access Insurance Brokers), and consumer lending (Oxygen X). The strategy is to become a diversified pan-African financial services group operating across 15+ countries in Africa, Europe, and Asia.
Last 12 months
2025
Product timeline
1989
Access Bank Nigeria incorporated and obtained commercial banking license.· banking
1998
Access Bank listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange.· ipo
2022
Access Holdings Plc created via Scheme of Arrangement, restructuring Access Bank into a financial holding company.· pivot
2022
Launched Hydrogen Payment Services as a payments subsidiary.· banking
2023
Received CBN approval-in-principle for Oxygen X Finance Company Limited (consumer lending subsidiary).· lending
2024
Access Holdings acquired Megatech Insurance Brokers.· acquisition
2025
Access Bank signed agreement to acquire 100% equity stake in South African-based Bidvest Bank.· acquisition
Acquisitions
Regulated entities
6
regulatory licences held by Access Holdings Plc
Licence types, jurisdictions and registered entities are in the Embedded Finance Index report.
The stack
6 layers disclosed in Access Holdings Plc’s embedded-finance stack
Payments / PSP
Hydrogen Payment Services (in-house)
Banking / BaaS
in the full report
Card issuing
in the full report
Lending
in the full report
Insurance
in the full report
Investing
in the full report
Accounting gap: none
12 more providers across 5 layers, with confidence-scored evidence and source URLs, are in the Embedded Finance Index report.