Access Holdings Plc paid penalties totalling about ₦1.21 billion to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) during 2024, according to the group's audited full-year financial statements filed on Nigerian Exchange Group (NGX) and reported on 16 April 2025.
The total was made up of nine separate penalties paid between April and December 2024: eight imposed by the CBN, amounting to about ₦1.1 billion, and one by the SEC. They were not a single joint fine.
ANTI-MONEY LAUNDERING BREACHES LEAD
The largest share related to contraventions of anti-money laundering regulations, for which the CBN levied ₦157.5 million on 16 July 2024 and ₦561 million on 19 December 2024, a combined ₦718.5 million. A further ₦300 million was paid to the CBN on 30 April 2024 for the improper warehousing of funds received from a government agency.
On 19 December 2024 the CBN also imposed ₦69 million for a violation of cyber incident reporting requirements. Smaller CBN penalties comprised two payments of ₦5 million, on 29 October and 11 December, relating to targeted financial sanctions and screening database issues; ₦5 million following a mystery-shopping exercise on confiscated naira notes; and ₦2 million on 9 August for the wrongful renewal of debit cards in breach of consumer protection rules.
PENALTIES FROM TWO REGULATORS
The only SEC penalty, of ₦100.6 million, was paid on 12 December 2024 for the unauthorised sale of securities.
The 2024 total compares with ₦38 million paid to the CBN for contraventions in 2023, a roughly thirty-fold increase. Access Holdings is the parent company of Access Bank.
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