Access Bank to grow market share by $2.3bn
By kusoro Jeremiah
Access Bank Plc has projected to grow its market share on the global trade platform from $4.1bn to $6.4bn.
The bank said the development would help it to support trade and project based financing for its customers.
The Head, Small and Medium Enterprise Desk, Access Bank, Mr. Oyediji Atoyebi, stated this during the bank’s sixth edition of ‘Power Break’
entitled: ‘Capacity building for business owners.’
He said the financial institution’s trade lines were currently at around $1.5bn, which he noted as sufficient mix to support the nation’s growing business needs.
Atoyebi said the bank’s trade platform had remained strong over a period of time, with a growing market share of $3.3bn in import in 2010; $6.5bn worth of import in 2011; $4.2bn 2012; $4.1bn 2013; and a 2014 projection of $6.4bn.
While affirming that the institution was among the top four trade banks in the country by value of initiated transactions and value of foreign exchange utilised, he was optimistic the bank would be among the top three by market share in 2014.
Atoyebi said Access Bank had continued to grow and diversify it’s customer base, just as it would continue to create opportunities for
SMEs on international trade.
According to him, the bank is the first to introduce an e-Form M platform in the country via its trade services platform.
He said, “We are today a preferred partner with several first class correspondent banks as we have a very firm understanding of the local
market and the various trade finance structures that are acceptable to
international markets.”
A member of the treasury group of the banks, Mr. Kingsley Azom, said the financial institution had created services for prompt processing
and approval of Form M; efficient e-channels; trained and highly-skilled workforce and competitive products and pricing among others.
Azom, who identified some of the major challenges in the import and export sub-sector as low financing, inadequate government regulations and logistics, assured of the bank’s tailor-made and robust payment solutions among other services.
Speaking on Access Bank’s role in foreign exchange market and hedging solutions for customers, the Group Head, Abuja Business Banking Group, David Aluko, said statistics had shown that 88 per cent of products in the Nigerian market were imported.
He said the bank would continue to create growth opportunities in international trade for local businesses.
“In line with its pivotal role in the Nigerian forex market, Access Bank Plc, in a bid to provide innovative solutions for its customers, developed an online trading platform called Access FX, through which it provides direct liquidity in all G10 currencies and as well as other third currencies for its customers.
“Customers can now have access to real time online rates at the click of a mouse and close-out via spots or hedge via forwards and swaps,
third currency transactions anywhere in the world.”