Our meeting that wet Thursday morning is at the Protea Hotel, Victoria Island. When the deputy managing director of a bank invites you to a meeting, you’d better know it’s a serious business.  Obinna Nwosu, group deputy managing director, Access Bank Plc, is already seated in the well-lit function room when I arrived the venue. He is not alone, some members of his team are with him. He greets me warmly and our meeting begins in earnest.

“There is a huge economic opportunity in Nigeria,” he says as soon as our meeting began. “A large chunk of the country’s population is made up of young people. Hence there is a clear index that we operate in an economic environment with huge potential.”

Bearing this in mind, he says, Access Bank is planning to expand its operations by going to the market to raise equity. “I don’t mean an IPO,” he explains. “I mean a Right Issue. We are inviting the same existing shareholders to be a part of our growth strategy. We are going to raise money from existing shareholders.”

According to him, the money raised from the Right Issue will be used for the bank’s expansion, improve on its technology infrastructure and channels. “We are also planning to expand to the Middle East and other parts of Asia,” he explains. “We have also decided to extend our reach to other countries like Kenya, Angola, and Uganda.

Between the year 2002 and 2007, Access Bank ranked among top ten banks in the country. It was the dominant trade finance bank  and was top three foreign exchange and money market bank as a model of compliance in the banking industry.

From 2007 to 2012, it was top five financial service groups and served as reference point for service delivery and was the leading e-business support bank. It was also regarded as the employee of choice in African and was reference point for corporate governance. In addition, it attained high independent credit rating and was top five trade finance bank.

Roosevelt Ogbonna, executive director, commercial banking, Access Bank, says the bank’s management wants to build a financial institution with global best practices. It is for this reason shareholders need to invest in Access Bank.

We have attractive market price trading at a 0.9x discount to book value,” he says. We have strong corporate governance and shareholder management practices. We offer a window of opportunity in rapidly expanding and consolidating banking sector with a backdrop of stable economy.  Our bank has demonstrated capacity in integrating and extracting value from acquisitions. We have actively traded stock with a robust shareholder base. We have a track record of strong performance; kept every promise made since 2002.”

in addition, he says, Access Bank is fully embedded as a Nigerian Tier 1 Bank and completed its transition to a large diversified financial institution. “Enhancement of Tier1capital is imperative to enable us exploit the market opportunities and achieve our vision whilst delivering superior shareholder value,” he adds. “We are poised for building and leveraging on resources and benefits of being a large diversified financial institution. We are resolute to achieving the objective of becoming the world’s most respected African Bank.”

With 21 percent capital adequacy ratio, and seven banking subsidiaries, Access Bank has  3,192 professional staff, 366 branches: 366, 1, 042 ATMs and 11, 846 POS channels.