Access Holdings May Sell a Foreign Subsidiary as Exposure Hits 19.4%

By Grace Kim

Access Holdings runs foreign-bank exposure at 19.4% of shareholders' funds — almost double the 10% legal ceiling — and chairman Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede says the group is ready to sell at least one overseas subsidiary.

Speaking to Bloomberg on the sidelines of the African Financial Industry Summit in Luanda, Angola, Aig-Imoukhuede disclosed that the parent of Access Bank, one of Nigeria's largest banking groups, would sell businesses that fail to meet their cost of capital or strategic objectives.

Section 19(8)(c) of the Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act (BOFIA) 2020 caps Nigerian banks' investment in foreign banking subsidiaries at 10% of shareholders' funds. Access sat at 19.4% in May.

What is Access actually doing about it?

The group operates across 16 African markets, including Tanzania, Kenya, Angola and Sierra Leone. Its options include recalling excess capital, selling minority stakes, or restructuring businesses. It has completed one capital repatriation exercise covering six subsidiaries and is engaging regulators in five countries — unnamed so far — to enable further returns.

Performance is uneven. Access's South African operation has recorded persistent losses, and its Kenyan business reported a loss in H1 2026. Mozambique, which struggled after an acquisition, returned to profitability in 2025. The template exists: Access sold its loss-making Ivory Coast unit in 2014, and in July it sold a 7.44% stake in its Ghanaian subsidiary. The current exit could follow the same route.

Takeaway: expansion bought scale, and now the regulator is making Access pay for it in disposals.

Why do Kenya's banks have two capital deadlines?

Kenya's Treasury wants lenders to reach KES 10 billion ($46 million) in core capital by 2032. The Central Bank of Kenya wants it by 2029. Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi announced the extension in his June 2026 Budget speech; CBK Governor Kamau Thugge rejected it and ordered banks holding under KES 5 billion to explain how they'll hit the December 2026 target.

The CBK's schedule ramps from $38 million by December 2026 to KES 6 billion ($46 million) in 2027, KES 8 billion ($62 million) in 2028 and KES 10 billion ($77 million) in 2029. As of June 2026, 14 banks held less than the KES 5 billion required by December, and seven had already missed the prior year's KES 3 billion ($23 million) target. Smaller banks warn the tighter timeline could force lending cuts that clash with the government's private-sector credit push.

Takeaway: until Mbadi and Thugge agree, Kenyan banks plan for two futures at once.

What went wrong between MTN and Cell C?

In a Monday trading update, MTN, Africa's largest telecom operator, said it failed to agree with Cell C on certain terms of their longstanding commercial relationship. Neither company disclosed details. Cell C confirmed the deal runs until 2032 with existing terms unchanged, according to TechCentral.

Cell C no longer runs its own radio network; it borrows MTN's infrastructure and lends MTN licensed spectrum in return. Cell C hosts an estimated 80–85% of South Africa's MVNO market, and its wholesale revenue grew 20% to R1.76 billion ($107.2 million) in the year to May, supporting 5.71 million MVNO lines. MTN now wants to become the country's leading MVNO wholesaler with new pricing — competing with its own customer. Both companies say customers won't see disruptions.

Takeaway: Cell C's asset-light model only works if its landlord-turned-rival keeps the terms friendly.

Where does Yoco's $100 million go?

South African fintech Yoco has secured a $100 million credit facility from US investment firm Victory Park Capital to expand Yoco Capital, its merchant cash advance business. Advances run from R2,000 ($121.80) to R1.5 million ($91,360), require no collateral, and repay automatically from daily sales.

Since launching Yoco Capital in 2018, the company has advanced more than R6.5 billion ($395 million) to over 40,000 merchants, and it wants to reach more of the 200,000-plus businesses on its platform. The bet rests on a financing gap the 2025 Finfind and African Bank MSME Access to Finance Report puts at R350 billion ($21.3 billion), with SMEs receiving just 13% of national bank lending versus 51% for large corporates. After acquiring Dyner AI in May and building an AI-powered small-business platform, Yoco is wagering that payment data becomes a bigger business than payments themselves.

Elsewhere: NVIDIA's board is investigating whether CEO Jensen Huang was targeted in a foreign espionage operation after he admitted an affair with a former chip distributor executive whom US officials suspect of working for Chinese intelligence; the $4.28 trillion chipmaker says it has no reason to believe its secrets were compromised. Bitcoin traded at $75,625, down 5.88% on the day and 10.24% on the month as of 06:54 AM WAT, November 10.

Watch the Access disposal trail — after Ivory Coast in 2014 and Ghana's 7.44% in July, the next sale will signal how far Nigeria's biggest banks must shrink to stay compliant.