Tycoon Aig-Imoukhuede’s firms supply Access, which he chairs

Access Holdings Plc, the Nigerian banking group chaired by tycoon Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, has disclosed that five of the companies supplying it with services are businesses in which he is a director or shareholder, but its accounts do not say how much it paid them, MoneyCentral reported.

The disclosures appear in the “directors’ interest in contracts” section of the group’s financial statements for the six months to June 30, which were published after a delay of several months. Nigeria’s Companies and Allied Matters Act requires directors to declare any interest they have in a company’s contracts.

The largest of the five is Coronation Group Ltd., the financial services group Aig-Imoukhuede founded and chairs, along with its subsidiaries. He is listed as a director and shareholder of Coronation, which includes a merchant bank, an insurer, a life assurer, a registrar and an asset manager. The other four suppliers, in each of which he is listed as a shareholder, are Central Securities Clearing System Plc, Nigeria’s securities depository; Trium Ltd., a Coronation affiliate; Cloud Services Ltd.; and investment bank Chapel Hill Denham Ltd.

The accounts do not give the value of the contracts with Coronation, Trium, Cloud Services or Chapel Hill Denham, or explain how the work was awarded. Nigerian banking rules generally require dealings with related parties to be approved by the board and carried out on the same terms as with outside suppliers. The disclosure does not say whether the board approved these contracts. There is no suggestion in the filing that any of the arrangements broke the rules.

Board ties to Coronation

Aig-Imoukhuede is not the only Access director with links to the Coronation companies. Olusegun Ogbonnewo, a non-executive director, is a director and shareholder of Coronation Insurance Plc and sits on the boards of Trium and Coronation Registrars Ltd. Ojinika Olaghere, another non-executive director, is a director of Coronation Life Assurance Ltd. That means three of the nine members of the Access Holdings board, including the chairman, are directors or shareholders of Coronation-related businesses that serve the group.

The same accounts show that the chairman received ₦293 million ($215,000) in director pay in the first half, compared with ₦164 million for the whole of 2025. Allowances for non-executive directors rose to ₦1.23 billion in the six months, from ₦251 million for all of last year. Directors owed the group ₦90.1 million at the end of June, including ₦5.5 million on the chairman’s cash-backed credit card, and all the loans were performing.

Nine-month profit rises

The half-year accounts were held up by a Central Bank of Nigeria review, and the Nigerian Exchange twice extended the group’s filing deadline. On Monday, Access Holdings also released its nine-month results. Profit before tax rose 8.3% to ₦667.4 billion ($489 million) in the nine months to September, and profit after tax increased 6% to ₦474.2 billion ($347 million). Third-quarter pre-tax profit rebounded to ₦253.2 billion from ₦141.9 billion in the second quarter.

Aig-Imoukhuede, who ran Access Bank as chief executive from 2002 to 2013 before returning as chairman of the holding company, owns 178.85 million shares directly and about 5 billion more through Coronation Trustees Ltd., Trust and Capital Ltd., United Alliance Company of Nigeria Ltd. and Tengen Holdings Ltd. His total of about 5.18 billion shares amounts to roughly 9.5% of the company.

Access Holdings shares closed at ₦26.50 on Monday, down 7.3% on the day. At that price, his stake is worth about ₦137.3 billion ($100.6 million).

Figures were converted at ₦1,365 to the dollar.