Access offers 23.88m shares in executive compensation

• Shares valued at N427.13m

Business a.m. Reporter

By way of share vesting, eight senior Access Holdings and Access Bank executives have received shares worth N427.13 million, the holding company said in regulatory disclosures to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited.

In a statement made available to Business a.m., Access Holdings Plc, Africa’s leading financial services group, gave the total number of shares vested on the executives as 23, 883, 790, adding that they were vested on May 3 and May 6, 2024 respectively.

Share vesting is defined as the process by which an employee, investor, or co-founder is rewarded with shares or stock options but receives the full rights to them little by little over time

Access Holdings said the vesting was in accordance with “the terms of its shareholders approved Employees Performance Share Plan.”

A breakdown of the beneficiaries of the share vesting shows that Bolaji Agbede, acting group chief executive officer of Access Holdings received 2, 216, 992 shares worth N39.795 million; Roosevelt Ogbonna, managing director and chief executive officer of Access Bank, the group’s flagship subsidiary, received 12, 345, 679 units worth N220.37 million with a further disclosure that the shares were traded at N17.85 per share.

Other beneficiaries are Seyi Kumapayi, executive director, African subsidiaries, Access Bank, who was vested with 1,234,568 worth N22.16 million; Iyabo  Soji-Okusanya, executive director, commercial and investment banking division, Access Bank, vested with 1,691,308 at N17.95 per share for a total value of N30.36 million; and Chizoma Okoli, deputy managing director, retail south, Access Bank, who got 1,728,395 units valued at N30.85 million.

Also, Gregory Jobome, executive director, risk management, and Hadiza Ambursa, executive director, commercial banking, were each vested with 1,728,395 valued at N30.85 and N31.02m respectively, an indication that their vested shares were traded at different prices.

Sunday Ekwochi, the company secretary of Access Holdings was also vested with the HoldCo’s shares numbering 1,210,058 units valued at N21.72 million.

The company explained that the vesting of the shares is not a purchase or sale transaction in the context of the Exchange’s Rules.