CHAMWE KAIRA
The Bank of Namibia has granted a provisional banking license to Access Bank, a Nigerian listed bank, with the goal of becoming a Tier 1 bank on the Namibian market.
Head of the Access Bank Namibian project, Oluseun Onasoga, said in an interview that in every market that Access Bank operates in, its ambition is to be in the top five on the market.
“We don’t want to play small. You have to have the required capital to ensure that you can support your strategic game plan. Our entry into Namibia is not to be a small player,” he said.
Onasoga said Access Bank wants to be a Tier 1 bank within the shortest period of time in a sustainable manner.
Access Bank started in Nigeria but has become a Pan African institution, Onasoga said.
“We are currently sitting in 16 African countries. We sit on three continents; we operate in the UK, France, Malta, and Dubai. We are the only African bank that has been given a license to operate in Hong Kong. We have a full commercial bank license in Hong Kong,” he said. Access has assets worth US$24 billion. It is the biggest bank in Nigeria, one of the top 20 institutions in Africa and one of the top 11 banks in Africa. Our aspirations have become global. We are on three continents,” he said.
He observed that Namibia’s strategic geographical location gives it an advantage from a trade perspective, as it connects to many countries in southern Africa.
“That means that there are opportunities from a trade perspective. Namibia is known for its sophisticated financial markets. This means that there is an opportunity to enable us to trade between South Africa, Botswana and the rest. From the business perspective, the SADC region is very integrated and that allows businesses to do businesses within themselves. Access Bank is powerful in intratrade,” Onasoga said.
He further added that Access Bank can help Namibia expand industries like mining and fishing into other parts of Africa.
The bank also hopes to play in the SME space in Namibia, leveraging on its experiences catering for over 60 million SME customers on its books.
“Namibia has thousands of SMEs and we will see how we can expand it,” he said.
Access Bank is also examining the booming oil and gas industry, having previously operated in these markets.
He said the bank has the capacity to do business within that space.
Onasoga said the bank is not worried about competing on the Namibian market but more concerned about creating value for its customers.
Asked about funding projects, he said the bank uses the moderate risk appetite method and invests in profitable or viable projects from infrastructure in both the private and public sectors.
According to Bank of Namibia regulations, foreign banks are required to have a 25% local shareholding.
Businesswoman Kauna Ndilula represents local shareholders.
“Namibia is a very big market. The bank will be anchored on different models, technology and brick and mortar in specific situations.”
Access Bank has started a graduate program that recruits undergraduates and exposes them to the financial industry, including six months of international training in Nigeria.
