Access Holdings Plc, parent company of Access Bank, has confirmed the resignation of Roosevelt Ogbonna as a Non-Executive Director, a development that has generated reactions across the Nigerian banking sector.
![](https://thenigerialawyer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/idrinstitute.png")
Ogbonna, who remains the Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Access Bank, stepped down from the board of the holding company in line with the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) Corporate Governance Guidelines for Financial Holding Companies (2023). The regulations stipulate that financial holding companies must have no fewer than seven and no more than nine directors.
With Access HoldCo already at the maximum threshold of nine directors, the adjustment required a change in its board composition. Following the move, Ogbonna’s profile was promptly removed from the HoldCo’s official website.
Access Bank contributes over 90 percent of Access HoldCo’s group revenues and more than 95 percent of its assets, raising questions among stakeholders about the timing and implications of his exit from the board.
Some shareholders and industry watchers speculated whether the resignation could be linked to a power struggle between Access Holdings Chairman, Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, and Roosevelt Ogbonna, especially given reported differences in leadership style between Aig-Imoukhuede and the late Herbert Wigwe.
An activist shareholder suggested the development may reflect underlying boardroom dynamics. However, senior sources within Access Bank dismissed these claims, insisting that the decision was reached collectively and that no rancor was involved. According to them, leadership realignments are natural, particularly when a new chairman and co-founder takes charge.
An industry review shows that it is not uncommon for the MD/CEO of a banking subsidiary to be absent from the board of its holding company. For example:
- FirstHoldCo has eight directors, including the GMD of First Bank, Olusegun Alebiosu.
- GTCO has six directors, but its bank CEO, Miriam Olusanya, is not on the board.
- Stanbic IBTC Holdings has eight directors, with Wole Adeniyi, CEO of Stanbic Bank, also not on the board.
- FCMB Group has 11 directors, excluding its bank CEO, Yemisi Edun.
- Sterling HoldCo, however, includes its bank CEO, Abubakar Suleiman, as a director.
Roosevelt Ogbonna, who joined Access Bank in 2002 after leaving Guaranty Trust Bank, rose through the ranks to become Executive Director in 2013, Deputy Managing Director in 2017, and eventually MD/CEO in May 2022. He now oversees 17 subsidiaries of Access Bank across Nigeria and Africa.
Access Holdings was established in 2022 following regulatory and shareholder approvals of a Scheme of Arrangement between Access Bank Plc and its investors. The group has since become one of the largest financial services conglomerates on the continent.
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