Access Holdings sets up new subsidiary Hydrogen

Nigeria’s biggest lender Access Holdings is seizing at every chance to accomplish its end of emerging Africa’s “gateway to the world,” having completed at least five bank acquisitions within Africa in less than two years with few more in the pipeline. And it now expects that taking dominance in the payments market across the continent, where its customers now number 60 million, will help pivot that push.

After scaling regulators hurdle, the corporation got a license this September to start a fintech arm christened Hydrogen Payment Services Company Limited, which will handle the group’s switching business and process payments among the broader plan to build a sustainable financial inclusion powerhouse.

Hydrogen is being positioned as a platform to drive virtually all of the digital transactions accruing to the group from across subsidiaries from banking to pensions as well as insurance, facilitating cash flow and aiding settlement.

“The idea is that wherever you are in the world, if you are making payment to anyone on the continent, one out of every three transactions that come into this continent will be settled on Access Bank’s platform,” CEO Herbert Wigwe told shareholders attending Access Holdings’ statutory meeting in Lagos on Tuesday.

The fintech division “will allow us to be able to ensure that there are settlements even in countries where we don’t even have a physical presence,” he added.

To gain inroads into those markets, Access Corporation will work arm in arm with development finance institutions, and is looking to the African Continental Free Trade Area agreement to help accelerate it.

This year, the holding company sold its subsidiary Access Pension Custodian to FBN Holdings, choosing to take a chance at pension fund management instead, which it considers more profitable.

“We will be setting up a lending business that will address most young people… to make sure that we support greater financial inclusion, greater financial deepening and addressing the lifestyle of those people,” Wigwe said.