KEY POINTS

• Access Holdings said its 2025 dividend pause stemmed from regulatory alignment issues, not earnings weakness.
• CEO Innocent Ike said a BOFIA cap on foreign banking subsidiary investments triggered the full year halt.
• The CBN granted Access Holdings a 12-month window to remediate, with partial divestment of some banking units planned.

Innocent Ike’s Access Holdings Plc on Wednesday told investors that its decision to skip a 2025 dividend stemmed from a regulatory cap on foreign banking subsidiary investments, not earnings weakness, and pledged to resume payouts once the central bank signs off.

Speaking on the group’s full year 2025 investors and earnings call, the chief executive officer said the holding company recommended dividends at both half year and full year, but failed to secure regulatory approval at each stage. Now Ike says management is racing to fix the underlying ratio so distributions can return.

Access Holdings, parent of one of Nigeria’s biggest banking franchises and a continent-wide acquirer under the late Herbert Wigwe, has paid dividends consistently in recent years. Indeed, the pause this cycle marks one of the few times shareholders will leave a financial year without a check despite strong group earnings.

BOFIA cap, not cash flow

Specifically, Ike traced the full year halt to Section 19(8)(c) of the Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act, which limits a Nigerian bank’s investment in foreign banking subsidiaries relative to its shareholders’ funds.

The Central Bank gave Access Holdings a 12-month window to bring its position back into line. Moreover, the group plans to partially divest from some banking subsidiaries while retaining supermajority shareholding, an approach designed to preserve its pan-African footprint while satisfying the BOFIA threshold.

“The non payment of dividend for 2025 was not due to earnings weakness or cash flow constraints, but an alignment with regulatory and prudential guidelines,” Ike said. Additionally, he said rewarding shareholders remains a core priority for the board and management.

At the half year stage, the group hit a separate constraint under Section 7.1 of the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Guidelines for Financial Holding Companies. However, Access Holdings has since fully resolved that constraint following a successful private placement that secured CBN approval.

Now only the BOFIA matter sits outstanding, and Ike said management is moving to satisfy the conditions before the 12-month deadline lapses.

Strong year, paused payout

Today, the group’s underlying numbers tell a different story from the dividend pause. Access Holdings posted what management described as robust earnings growth and balance sheet expansion across 2025, even as its dividend file sat with regulators.

“Our performance in 2025 demonstrates the strength of the franchise and its capacity to generate value for shareholders,” Ike said. Furthermore, he said management aims to ensure shareholder distributions resume on a sustainable basis once approvals come through.

Meanwhile, retail shareholders accustomed to regular dividends will need to wait until management resolves the BOFIA position. Together with the planned partial divestments, the resolution timetable could reset Access Holdings’ payout calendar for 2026 and beyond.

Whether the group can complete the divestments without bruising its African expansion ambitions will be the next test. Yet for now, Ike’s message to the market is clear, the dividend pause is regulatory plumbing, not a profit problem, and shareholders should expect the checks to start flowing again once the conditions are met.