Herbert Wigwe, Group Managing Director of Access Bank Plc, on Tuesday interfaced with the global investment community, when he held a conference call to provide insights into its recently published unaudited nine-month financials, saying there are no plans for mergers and acquisitions in its Ghana operations, following the hike in minimum capital requirement for banks announced by the country’s central Bank.
Ghana’s central bank, according to Reuters, in September raised minimum capital required threefold to 400m cedis (about $92 million) from 120 cedis, as part of measures to ensure financial stability, its spokesman said.
Lenders have until the end of 2018 to comply.
Access Bank owns 91% of Access Bank Ghana as Wigwe told the analysts: “We have no interest whatsoever in doing any form of combination in Ghana. We think it will be safer and better for us to grow organically.”
Wigwe said the recapitalisation would strengthen Ghana’s banking sector and that customers will move to lenders that have met the requirement, potentially helping the company’s Ghanaian business to gain market share.
The company completed an initial public offering for its Ghana subsidiary in March, selling a 6% stake for $6m.
The group said at the time that it wanted to bolster the capital base of Access Bank Ghana in the event of a deterioration of the Ghana economy.