Author: World Finance

In April 2019, Access Bank merged with Diamond Bank: now with 29 million customers, Access is the largest bank in Nigeria by customer base. And as well as transforming its customer-facing processes, it’s reforming its corporate governance and compliance framework to keep up with the technological challenges of banking in the modern age. We have two more videos from this interview: about the changes Access Bank is making to serve its more-than-doubled customer base, and its sustainability projects.

World Finance: Tell me about your corporate governance practices; now you’re such a much larger bank than before, this must be increasingly important.

Herbert Wigwe: Extremely so. We have – apart from the traditional things, and the four eyes principle, there’s also – clear delineation of duties. We basically comply with the code of corporate governance by the Securities and Exchange Commission, and by the central bank. But we go far beyond that. Even the board committees look at things to do with technology, with cyber security: because it’s a brand new world. Now data is the new currency! It’s no longer the bank vault.

Now, compliance is a big thing, today in the world. We are beginning to strengthen our entire compliance framework: working together with our subsidiary out in the UK, we are making sure that all subsidiaries are compliant with the global compliant standards. Because the bigger you are, the more you are subjected to scrutiny in the different geographies in which you have a presence.

So it’s changing our thought process, it’s changing the way we look at life, it’s changing the way we look at the world. It’s also enabling us to anticipate the great changes that can come even out of technology that may disrupt our business. And enabling us to be the first to disrupt the business if any such thing was going to happen.

World Finance: You personally must be a lot busier now with the new Access Bank; tell me about your priorities at the moment.

Herbert Wigwe: First of all it’s people: any business is founded on strong people and people management. I mean, irrespective of what you do with technology; it’s people at the end of the day who run all of these things. So that’s the first one.

The second is technology. We were lucky in the deal with Diamond, in the sense that we had the same technology platform. But sometimes getting systems to speak to themselves, so that you don’t disrupt the customer, keep their account details the same, etc – may not just add up immediately. I think it’s going on well, but it remains a challenge.

And thirdly, there are larger issues that have to do with infrastructure. So I’ll give you a simple example. If they switch network, or if there’s an issue across the country: it will affect us, because we have the largest customer base! At 29 million customers it means that one out of every three transactions settles on your platform: at the slightest issue, you feel it more than anybody else.

Now, these are issues that we didn’t have to deal with in the past. But resolving them is the most important thing. Creating the fallback situations, creating backstop arrangements, to ensure that if there’s a problem with the systems somewhere, your customers can also transact their businesses without feeling that hitch.

You know, it’s an interesting time for us.

World Finance: When we met two years ago, you expressed at the time a very strong personal responsibility to the country. Now as you say, one in three transactions landing on your platform: do you feel a greater responsibility than ever to the country and the continent? How are you seeing that reflected in Access Bank moving forward?

Herbert Wigwe: More than ever before. I think with 29 million customers, I begin to understand the impact of our actions on the country. The impact of whatever we do from a digital standpoint, in terms of our contribution to the GDP.

You know, we have 200 million people. We have maybe 50 million unique bank accounts. It means that there’s a market of anywhere between 60 and 70 million that needs to be brought into the formal sector.

What we’re trying to do is to make sure that we use digital to support them – even the bottom of the pyramid. If we can help them, that can begin to have so much impact on our country. One, in terms of financial deepening. Secondly, in terms of the funding and liquidity profile of banks. Thirdly, in terms of the sustainability of the financial services institutions. Fourthly, in terms of the contribution to the GDP of our country.

SMEs, micro-SMEs, represent the bedrock of the economy. And if we begin to serve them more and more and more, it can change our country totally. And I feel a strong responsibility to do that.

World Finance: Herbert Wigwe, thank you very much.

Herbert Wigwe: Thank you very much, Paul.

When Herbert Wigwe first created Access Bank, his ambition was to create the most respected bank in Africa. He explains what this means: in terms of expanding financial inclusion in Nigeria and the rest of the continent, supporting women entrepreneurs, and helping launch Nigeria’s Sustainability Banking Principles. We have two more videos from this interview: about Access Bank’s improved corporate governance practices, and what it means to be Nigeria’s largest bank by customer base.

World Finance: When you created Access Bank, your ambition was to create the most respected bank in Africa…

Herbert Wigwe: Absolutely.

World Finance: …financial inclusion, sustainability, obviously extremely important for that; tell me about your sustainability goals.

Herbert Wigwe: I think for us, sustainability is a very important part of our business. Issues that have to do with people, planet and profits – very, very important. So we – together with the Central Bank of Nigeria, several years ago – launched the Nigerian Sustainability Banking Principles. And I think for several years we have been at the lead of it.

Things that have to do with gender balance; we started supporting female entrepreneurs, we introduced things like the maternal healthcare scheme – things which are not very normal, in the context of the continent.

But apart from that, I think the most recent aspect – which gives us a lot of pride – is the fact that we launched a green bond. And that green bond is Climate Bond Initiative certified – it’s the first in the continent.

And the more we do these things, the more we think other corporates will take a lead – and therefore lift up the continent as far as sustainability is concerned. And I think if you keep us side-by-side, most institutions in the continent and world over, I think we’re exactly where we want to be.

World Finance: As you say, supporting women has always been very important to Access Bank – how has that evolved over time?

Herbert Wigwe: When we first started this whole initiative, we initially thought about supporting women financially: professional women, women who were entrepreneurial. And we said, we wanted to take 20 women from zero in terms of turnover, to NGN 1bn in terms of turnover, over five years.

And over the five years – you know, from 2006-11 – I think we did very well.

But we then went and sat back and said, look. This whole thing about gender support can be done differently. There’s so much more apart from finance that we need to give. Finance is important, but it’s not everything.

So we emerged into what we referred to as the Access Women Network. This was about creating a forum where we inspire, connect, and empower women. We created portals through which women could be supportive of themselves. We created portals where we could support women – for instance, if you needed an accountant, you could get an accountant to look at your books at rates that were subsidised. Because for a lot of them who were becoming entrepreneurial, they needed to be taught a bit more in terms of the basic things around accounting, and all of that.

And then we deepened our capacity-building as far as this was concerned. So twice a year we would take women and train them. For those who are at the beginning, early stages of their business, support them from a capacity-building standpoint. For those who were a more mature level, teach them about issues around succession planning for their businesses.

So that was what Access Women Network was built around. And I think today it’s got to a mature stage. We have tens of thousands of women who are part of that network. They meet at different points of time in the year, discussing the typical issues that their gender has to deal with.

World Finance: How does your mission inform what you do? Both in terms of the services that you’re offering to your customers, and also across the continent – working across borders and building your brand?

Herbert Wigwe: Our mission is very simple: it’s setting standards for sustainable business practices. Unleash the talents of employees. Deliver superior value to our customers. And provide innovative solutions to the market and communities we serve.

And what that does, simply, is to say: we will do business, but we will do business responsibly. We will do it sustainably. And it’s something we have been celebrated world over for, and we remain extremely proud of it. So it may not be the most profitable thing in the short term – defined in strict financial terms. But in the larger sense, and looking at it over time, doing business responsibly and sustainably is the only way to live.