Business
Access Holdings Clarifies Non-Payment of Dividend Amid Strong 2025 Earnings
BY NKECHI NAECHE-ESEZOBOR— Access Holdings Plc on Thursday reaffirmed its commitment to long-term shareholder value following a strong financial performance in 2025, while explaining the reason for not declaring dividends for the year ended December 31, 2025.
The clarification was made during the Group’s Full Year 2025 Investors and Earnings Call, where management addressed shareholder concerns over the absence of dividend payments despite strong earnings growth.
The Group stated that the decision not to pay dividends was not due to weak earnings or cash flow challenges, but was tied to regulatory and prudential compliance issues that must be resolved before approvals can be granted. Group Managing Director/CEO, Innocent C. Ike, noted that the company remains committed to rewarding shareholders and maintaining its long-standing record of consistent dividend payments.
Access Holdings recorded strong growth in its 2025 financial results. Gross earnings rose by 13.3 percent to ₦5.53 trillion, driven by growth in net interest income and a 40.9 percent increase in fees and commissions to ₦585.07 billion. Profit before tax grew by 16.2 percent to ₦1.01 trillion, marking the first time the Group crossed the ₦1 trillion threshold in profit before tax.
The Group’s total assets expanded by 24.2 percent to ₦51.56 trillion, supported by the successful integration of newly acquired subsidiaries. Its cost-to-income ratio improved from 56.7 percent to 51.7 percent due to disciplined cost management, while capital adequacy remained strong at 18.2 percent at the holding company level and 20.2 percent for the banking subsidiary.
Access Holdings explained that while dividends were proposed at both half-year and full-year stages in 2025, regulatory approvals were not secured. The half-year issue related to Section 7.1 of the CBN Guidelines for Financial Holding Companies, which has now been resolved through a successful private placement. However, at full-year, another issue arose under Section 19(8)(c) of BOFIA concerning limits on investments in foreign banking subsidiaries relative to shareholders’ funds.
The Group said it has been granted a 12-month window to address the issue and plans to partially divest from some banking subsidiaries while retaining majority ownership. Management assured investors that Access Holdings remains focused on regulatory compliance, capital strength, and sustainable long-term value creation, with the goal of restoring dividend payments once all conditions and approvals are satisfied.
The post Access Holdings Clarifies Non-Payment of Dividend Amid Strong 2025 Earnings appeared first on Business Today NG.
Business
IMF warns against blanket petrol subsidies, suggests targeted support for poor, vulnerable people
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Wednesday warned against blanket subsidies, saying targeted support for vulnerable and poor people provides better results.
Rodrigo Valdés, Director of the IMF’s Fiscal Affairs Department, spoke during a press briefing on the fund’s fiscal monitor at the 2026 annual meetings of the IMF and World Bank in Bangkok, Thailand.
The fund said that, beyond being expensive, blanket petrol subsidies often benefit higher-income consumers disproportionately and could worsen fiscal pressures amid rising debt and borrowing costs.
“Protecting people is not the same as protecting the price of fuels,” Mr Valdés said.
“It’s first fiscally very costly, and second, if you look at the pattern of consumption, it’s easy to see that that subsidy is readily regressive in many places.”
Mr Valdes spoke in response to a question on how the IMF could recommend energy prices to reflect scarcity when higher fuel prices in Nigeria and some other countries have led to higher cost of living, increased transport costs, worsening inflation, and poverty.
The IMF official said fuel subsidies or measures preventing prices from adjusting fully to an energy shock had cost countries between 1 per cent and 1.5 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2026.
He called on governments across the world to instead use social safety nets and household data to identify people who need assistance.
“There are better tools to deal with this,” he said.
The fund’s intervention is in line with its long-standing position on subsidy, as recently canvassed in a recent report.
“Targeted and temporary transfers are the most effective and cost-efficient way to protect poorer households when prices for basics spike,” fund said in its report.
“This approach directly supports those who need it most, preserves scarce fiscal space, and allows high market prices to continue signalling scarcity, encouraging consumers to reduce consumption if they can.”
READ ALSO: Targeted support, not subsidies, can best protect people when inflation surges IMF
Local Debates
Debates over the propriety of fuel subsidy has been at the centre of discussions in Nigeria in recent weeks, ahead of a crucial election slated for January.
While the Nigerian government, led by President Bola Tinubu, has defended its economic policy of subsidy removal as critical to the nation’s fiscal survival, opposition politicians—such as Atiku Abubakar of the ADC and Peter Obi of the NDC—have canvassed for and promised a return to different subsidy arrangements if elected into power.
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