Access Bank Plc has redeemed its $500 million Senior Unsecured Eurobond, which matured on Monday, September 21, 2026. The bank said the repayment was funded entirely from its own foreign-currency liquidity resources.
The source of the repayment is significant. Access Holdings said the entire $500 million principal was paid from Access Bank’s existing foreign-currency liquidity resources, in line with the asset-liability management plan established when the debt was issued.
The Eurobond was issued in September 2021 with a five-year tenor and a coupon rate of 6.125%. Since the issuance, Access Bank said it had met all semi-annual coupon payment obligations as they fell due.
According to the bank, the redemption discharges all its obligations under the Eurobond and was incorporated into its liquidity management framework.
Access Bank said the repayment will have no adverse impact on its operations or regulatory liquidity requirements, adding that the transaction was consistent with its asset-liability management framework and the maturity profile anticipated when the bond was issued.
Roosevelt Ogbonna, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Access Bank Plc, said the redemption demonstrated the bank’s funding position and balance-sheet discipline.
“This redemption reflects the strength of Access Bank’s franchise, the discipline of our balance sheet management, and our continued commitment to meeting obligations to investors and stakeholders in a timely and transparent manner.”
Ogbonna added that settling the maturity from the bank’s own balance sheet reflected the strength of its funding position and its approach to managing capital and liquidity.
The bank said it would continue to maintain a diversified funding base to support growth and meet its commitments to customers, investors, regulators and other stakeholders across its markets.
Different FX Backdrop
The redemption comes against an improving foreign-exchange backdrop for Nigerian banks compared with the severe dollar shortages experienced earlier in the country’s FX reform cycle.
In March, Fitch Ratings said Nigerian banks were in a stronger position to meet roughly $1.7 billion of Eurobond maturities and callable instruments due in 2026, citing improved foreign-currency liquidity and stronger external buffers. The rating agency said the stronger position reduced the need for banks to undertake urgent refinancing in international markets.
Nigeria’s broader external position has also strengthened. Gross foreign-exchange reserves reached about $54.61 billion on September 14, 2026, up from $41.84 billion a year earlier, according to reports based on Central Bank of Nigeria data.
National reserves are not a measure of Access Bank’s own dollar liquidity, but the expansion illustrates the more favourable external environment in which Nigerian banks are managing their foreign-currency obligations. The naira has also traded relatively steadily in recent sessions, with Reuters reporting last week that Nigeria’s currency was being supported by central-bank intervention and softer import demand.
From $1.6bn Demand to Full Repayment
Access Bank entered the Eurobond market in September 2021 in very different global financing conditions.
The $500 million issue attracted an order book exceeding $1.6 billion, more than three times the amount the bank sought to raise. Investors came from the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Africa. The debt was issued under Access Bank’s $1.5 billion Global Medium-Term Note Programme and listed on the London Stock Exchange.
At a 6.125% coupon, the instrument required annual interest payments of about $30.6 million, split into two semi-annual payments, before the $500 million principal became due at maturity.
Its repayment therefore closes a five-year borrowing cycle that began with strong international demand in 2021 and ends with the bank choosing to use accumulated foreign-currency resources rather than roll the liability into another bond.
The company said the repayment had already been incorporated into its liquidity planning and would have no adverse effect on the bank’s operations or regulatory liquidity requirements.
For investors, the transaction provides a direct test of a bank’s ability to meet a large dollar-denominated obligation without having to raise replacement debt at maturity. Nigerian banks earn and hold foreign currency from sources including domiciliary deposits, export-related transactions, correspondent banking activities and other dollar-generating businesses, but large Eurobond repayments can still place pressure on their foreign-currency liquidity.
Access Bank’s decision to repay rather than refinance means it was not dependent on conditions in international bond markets on the maturity date.
Explainer: What Does Redeeming a Eurobond Mean?
A Eurobond in this context is a bond issued in an international market and denominated in a currency different from the issuer’s domestic currency. For Access Bank, the obligation was denominated in US dollars, meaning both interest and principal had to be serviced in dollars.
Redemption simply means paying bondholders the principal owed when the bond reaches maturity. Access Bank has now returned the $500 million principal, completing its obligation under the bond.
The alternative would have been refinancing. The bank could, for example, have issued another Eurobond and used the proceeds to repay the maturing one. That approach would preserve more of its existing cash but expose the bank to prevailing international interest rates, investor demand and market conditions. A new issue could also carry a higher or lower borrowing cost depending on those conditions.
Repaying from internal FX liquidity does the opposite: it reduces available dollar resources by the amount repaid but eliminates the maturing debt rather than replacing it with a new obligation.
For international investors, the key point is therefore not simply that a $500 million bond reached maturity, but that Access Bank says it was able to meet the obligation in full from resources already on its balance sheet without relying on a new external borrowing to do so.
