JP Morgan, West Africa has succeeded in headhunting one of Access Bank plc’s brightest personnel, Dapo Olagunju, who was the Group Treasurer of the tier-1 lender.
Olagunju, a celebrated treasurer who has been at Access Bank for over 14 years, has just resigned to become the managing director, West Africa at JP Morgan.
The Oxford and Harvard Business School trained treasurer, who managed the financial assets and liabilities of Access Bank Group, joined the bank from IBTC.
“He will certainly be missed. Access Bank profitability has been driven mostly by treasury activities lately,” an industry source said last night.
In the half year ended June 2017, Access Bank recorded a significant 82 percent increase in interest from investment securities to N37.5 billion on the back of growth in investment securities, the bank’s half year financial presentation to investors show. The bank also recorded a “strong year on year growth in net trading income of N55.4 billion, an increase of 152 percent, driven by an increase in the bank’s foreign exchange income resulting from trading activities.”
Sources have told BusinessDay that Access Bank treasury under “Dapo” as he is fondly called, is seen as one of the most “aggressive” and profitable in the industry.
In the full year to December 31, 2016, Access Bank’s profit before tax (PBT) improved by 23.6 percent to N80.6 billion, the highest the bank has recorded in its history.
This translated to a pre-tax return on average assets and average equity of 2.7 percent and 20.9 percent, respectively.
Agusto & Co, which assigned Aa- final rating on Access Bank this year, said the rating assigned to the tier-1 lender reflected its good asset quality, consistent rise in profitability and good market share in the Nigerian banking sector.
The rating, which is assigned to a financial institution of very good financial condition and strong capacity to meet its obligations as and when they fall due, was further supported by the bank’s good liquidity profile and the experience and skill of its management team.
In 2016, the bank took some initiatives in line with its 5-year strategic plan to rank among the top three banks in its chosen markets and across financial metrics by the end of 2017.
These initiatives included improvement of the risk management framework, the deepening of a retail banking drive by creating a digital business, a cost reduction programme and the use of the value chain strategy to capture small businesses in the retail segment of the market.
This has translated to a growth in market share with it becoming the third largest bank on the basis of its total assets and contingents of N3.3 trillion as of December 31, 2016. Access Bank ranks third among the 25 banks in Nigeria on the basis of total assets.
Buoyed largely by the devaluation of the domestic currency, its loans and advances amounted to N1.7 trillion as of December 31, 2016, representing a 30 percent growth from prior year.
As of December31, 2016, the bank’s liquid assets totalled N592 billion, accounting for 18 percent of its total assets and contingents while gross loans and advances grew by 30 percent to N1.7 trillion, and accounted for 52 percent of the bank’s total assets.
Access Bank’s asset quality remained stable as its non-performing loans (NPL) ratio stood at 1.8 percent as of December 31, 2016, and has remained below 2.5 percent since 2013.
The bank’s capitalisation was upheld by Tier 1 (Core) capital, which grew by 14 percent in 2016 to N409.7 billion, on the back of higher earnings retention.
Its core capital remains well above the N50 billion regulatory requirement for a Nigerian commercial bank licensed to operate internationally.
Iheanyi Nwachukwu
