Access Holdings: Nigeria’s Banking Titan Flexes Interest Income Muscle

Nigeria’s largest bank just posted fortress-level interest income numbers—proof that traditional finance still knows how to squeeze yield from a struggling economy.

While DeFi protocols battle for single-digit APYs, Access Holdings’ loan book printed double-digit growth like it’s 2021 all over again. Old money meets new hustle.

Cynical take: Maybe they’re just better at hiding the non-performing loans than their fintech ’disruptors.’

Growth in interest and non-interest income during the review period was the primary driver of the improvement, according to the group’s unaudited consolidated financial statements recently submitted to the Nigerian Exchange.

Interest income computed using the effective interest rate increased by 58.6 percent from N608 billion in the first quarter of 2024 to N964 billion in the first quarter.
However, interest expenses increased from N443.9bn to N760.5bn, a 71.3 percent increase from the previous year.

The net impairment charge on financial assets was N21.8 billion, slightly less than N22.8 billion in 2024, and net interest income decreased by 20.1 percent to N220.2 billion from N275.7 billion. Net interest income following impairment decreased from N252.9 billion to N198.4 billion

Revenue from fees and commissions increased from N112.4bn to N174.5bn, while costs increased from N25.5bn to N28.3bn. Net fee and commission income increased to N146.2 billion from N86.9 billion during the same period in 2024.

Nigeria’s biggest lender by total assets reported a fair value and foreign exchange gain of N214.4 billion in the first quarter of 2025, up from N119.2 billion the year before. At the same time, other operating income decreased from N23 billion to N12.8 billion.

Access Holdings reports a total comprehensive loss of N39.6 billion, despite the profit growth, as opposed to a gain of N388.3 billion during the same period in 2024. A N84 billion drop in the fair value of debt financial instruments as determined by other comprehensive income and an unrealized foreign exchange translation difference of N142 billion were the main causes of the loss.