Access Bank completes NBK acquisition

Access Bank has sealed its acquisition of the National Bank of Kenya (NBK) from KCB Group.

The acquisition—first announced in March 2024—marks a significant step in the Nigerian lender's aggressive East Africa expansion. With all regulatory green lights now secured, NBK becomes a fully owned subsidiary of Access Bank Plc.

The transaction gives Access Bank a substantial footprint in Kenya. Access Bank will gain access to NBK's 77 bank branches across its 28 counties, elevating Access Bank Kenya to a tier-two bank status. The acquisition also increases Access Bank's market share from 0.2% to 1.9%.

Access entered Kenya in 2020 by acquiring Transnational Bank (now Access Bank Kenya), but until now, its presence remained modest. The NBK deal changes that. While the purchase price wasn't publicly disclosed, NBK was valued at 1.25x its book value—roughly pegging the deal around $102 million.

Why it matters: The acquisition isn't just about scale for Access Bank. NBK has deep ties with Kenya's public sector and strong brand equity. That means Access gets not only infrastructure and licenses but also instant credibility. As the East African region becomes more interconnected, Access Bank sees Kenya as a launchpad into regional trade and finance flows.

CEO Roosevelt Ogbonna called the move a "springboard" into East Africa, aligning with the bank's wider pan-African ambitions. Beyond Kenya, Access has recently expanded into Angola and Guinea, with sights set on Morocco, Namibia, and Ethiopia.

Equity Group's CEO, James Mwangi, isn't playing nice anymore.

Sip on this real quick ☕: Kenya's second-biggest bank by assets has fired over 1,200 employees in a brutal crackdown on fraud. What began on May 20 with 200 sackings has snowballed into a full-on purge.

What triggered this purge? Turns out $15.4 million has quietly disappeared over the past two years—some of it sneaking into offshore accounts, including a high-profile case in Abu Dhabi last year. After months-long soul searching, the bank found internal rot across multiple departments. Since then, the bank has placed heavy scrutiny on employee transactions, including personal M-PESA activities and bank accounts.

Even blinking in the direction of known suspected fraudsters will get them fired.

This is a big deal: It is very rare for financial institutions to take such a public and far-reaching approach to addressing internal fraud. Plus, this layoff marks one of the largest anti-fraud moves by a Kenyan bank in recent years. In July, 2024, First Bank of Nigeria fired at least 120 employees over a ₦40 billion fraud scandal.

The future holds more possible layoffs: Out of Equity Group's 14,000 staff—as CEO, Mwangi, has confirmed that investigations would spread to the banks' other markets in Uganda, South Africa, Tanzania, Rwanda and DR Congo.

Zoom out: Equity's move echoes a loud message to staff, customers, regulators, and other banks: this is a zero-tolerance zone. If the CEO's tone is anything to go by, grab your popcorn, the show is not over.

In addition to its exports in mineral fields, cocoa beans, and Afrobeats, Nigeria wants to start exporting something new: people.

(Well, technically, their talent, but how else would I have baited you?)

Brain drain or brain gain? : The National Talent Export Programme (NATEP) has been relaunched by the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade, and Investment, and it is taking one of the country’s most valuable resources, human capital, global. This initiative, launched 18 months ago at a UN event, intends to tap into the $854 billion global outsourcing industry by positioning Nigeria as a leading exporter of skills in technology, creative industries, healthcare, business process outsourcing (BPO), professional services, and remote work.

The initiative is backed by private sector partners like Itana, Alaro City, and Sterling Bank.

Why? Apparently, the world is hiring, and Nigeria is fluent in the language of opportunity with about 55% of the population being youths, a strategic time zone (similar to Europe), and growing digital skills in the country.

What’s in it for Nigeria? We can say it’s definitely good news for citizens who want to japa. In addition, this project will make Nigeria a key part of the modern global economy, where skills are just as important as physical products. It is an ambitious plan that aims to attract over $1 billion in foreign investments, 1 million export-linked jobs, and make services contribute to the GDP.

Zoomout: It sounds like a win until the questions start rolling in: Nigerians have heard big, shiny plans before. Will this one actually deliver? The country is already losing talent to other countries: can they really afford to export the talent they’re still struggling to keep? And maybe the biggest question of all: who gets to control the narrative, the talent walking out, or the country learning how to cash in before they do?