Early Warning System

Regions

Africa

Geographic location where the impacts of the investment may be experienced.

Countries

Nigeria

Geographic location where the impacts of the investment may be experienced.

Financial Institutions

African Development Bank (AFDB)

International, regional and national development finance institutions. Many of these banks have a public interest mission, such as poverty reduction.

Project Status

Approved

Stage of the project cycle. Stages vary by development bank and can include: pending, approval, implementation, and closed or completed.

Bank Risk Rating

Environmental and social categorization assessed by the development bank as a measure of the planned project’s environmental and social impacts. A higher risk rating may require more due diligence to limit or avoid harm to people and the environment. For example, "A" or "B" are risk categories where "A" represents the highest amount of risk. Results will include projects that specifically recorded a rating, all other projects are marked ‘U’ for "Undisclosed."

Voting Date

Dec 17, 2024

Date when project documentation and funding is reviewed by the Board for consideration and approval. Some development banks will state a "board date" or "decision date." When funding approval is obtained, the legal documents are accepted and signed, the implementation phase begins.

Borrower

Access Bank Nigeria PLC

A public entity (government or state-owned) provided with funds or financial support to manage and/or implement a project.

Sectors

Finance
Industry and Trade

The service or industry focus of the investment. A project can have several sectors.

Investment Type(s)

Loan

The categories of the bank investment: loan, grant, guarantee, technical assistance, advisory services, equity and fund.

Investment Amount (USD)

$ 173.37 million

Value listed on project documents at time of disclosure. If necessary, this amount is converted to USD ($) on the date of disclosure. Please review updated project documents for more information.

Bank Documents

Primary Source

Original disclosure @ AFDB website

Updated in EWS Jun 6, 2025

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Project Description

If provided by the financial institution, the Early Warning System Team writes a short summary describing the purported development objective of the project and project components. Review the complete project documentation for a detailed description.

According to the Bank’s website, the project consists of the provision of a USD 230 million, Trade Finance Package (Facility) to Access Bank Plc comprising (i) a USD 170 million Trade Finance Line of Credit (TFLoC) with a 3.5-year tenor and (ii) a USD 60 million Transaction Guarantee (TG) instrument with a tenor of 3 years. The TFLOC will provide critically needed FX liquidity to support SMEs and local enterprises operating in the tradable sectors to settle maturing trade finance obligations and continue to have unencumbered access to international financial markets and global supply chains as they procure critical inputs such as raw material, equipment, and intermediate goods for further local processing. Under the TG, Access Bank will act as an Issuing Bank (IB) supporting trade finance activities in Nigeria while the Bank willprovide up to 100% guarantee to Confirming Banks (CBs) for the non-payment risk arising from the confirmation of letters of credit and similar trade finance instruments issued by ABN. The project contributes to climate finance, with 92 million USD of the total approved amount dedicated to mitigation.

Early Warning System Project Analysis

For a project with severe or irreversible impacts to local community and natural resources, the Early Warning System Team may conduct a thorough analysis regarding its potential impacts to human and environmental rights.

Environmental Category: [2] Moderate Risk

Investment Description

Here you can find a list of individual development financial institutions that finance the project.

African Development Bank (AFDB)

Finance Type: Standard loan
Commitments (UA): 130,385,096
Conversion Rate USD (2024-12-17): 1,32974

Financial Intermediary

A financial intermediary is a bank or financial institution that receives funds from a development bank. A financial intermediary then lends these funds to their clients (private actors) in the form of loans, bonds, guarantees and equity shares. Financial intermediaries include insurance, pension and equity funds. The direct financial relationship is between the development bank and the financial intermediary.

Access Bank Plc (Financial Intermediary)

Private Actors Description

A Private Actor is a non-governmental body or entity that is the borrower or client of a development project, which can include corporations, private equity and banks. This describes the private actors and their roles in relation to the project, when private actor information is disclosed or has been further researched.

Access Bank is a leading full-service commercial bank operating through a network of more than 660 branches and service outlets, spanning 12 countries, and 36 million customers. The Bank employs 28,000 people in its operations and has subsidiaries across Sub-Saharan Africa and the United Kingdom (with a branch in Dubai, United Arab Emirates) and representative offices in China, India, and Lebanon.

Contact Information

This section aims to support the local communities and local CSO to get to know which stakeholders are involved in a project with their roles and responsibilities. If available, there may be a complaint office for the respective bank which operates independently to receive and determine violations in policy and practice. Independent Accountability Mechanisms receive and respond to complaints. Most Independent Accountability Mechanisms offer two functions for addressing complaints: dispute resolution and compliance review.

Samson KASUKA
Trade Finance Officer, PIFD3
African Development Bank
s.kasuka@afdb.org
www.afdb.org