Trademarks Global buys 56.18% of eTranzact, Access Bank exits payments firm

What's the deal? Trademarks Global Concepts LimitedDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → has acquired a controlling 56.18% stake in Nigerian payments company eTranzact International PlcDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, prompting a board overhaul. The transaction involved the transfer of 5,168,921,170 ordinary shares from Access Bank PlcDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, Meristem Trustees LimitedDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → (as trustee for Accelerex HoldingsDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →), and eTranzact Global LimitedDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →. The deal value was not disclosed.

What changes? Access BankDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → and Accelerex exited their stakes entirely. Directors representing the departing shareholders resigned alongside two independent non-executive directors, the company said in a filing with the Nigerian Exchange Limited.

The new board. eTranzactDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → appointed Akinwunmi Akinfemiwa, Olatunde Akande, and Doron Grupper as non-executive directors, plus Omobola Hollist and Mustapha Ajenifuja, SAN, as independent non-executive directors. Akinfemiwa, a non-executive director at First Bank of NigeriaDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, previously led Geregu Power PlcDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → and Forte Oil Plc as chief executive officer. The company said it has secured Central Bank of Nigeria approval for the appointments.

By the numbers. eTranzact grew revenue 22.6% to ₦16.28 billion in the first half of 2026, expanding operations ahead of the share transfer. The company founded by Valentine Obi began operations in 2003 as a mobile and electronic payments switch and later listed on the exchange.

Why now? Access Bank had raised its stake from 23.8% in 2021 to 37.56% by December 2022 through purchases totalling ₦12.1 billion. The bank has not publicly stated why it sold. A surge in trading activity hit in March, when eTranzact recorded 5.1 billion shares traded — close to the 5.17 billion shares in the completed deal.

The signal: Unlike Access Bank's July 2026 sale of a 7.44% stake in its Ghana subsidiary, where it kept control, the eTranzact deal marks a full exit from a domestic associate. For eTranzact, a single controlling owner replaces a mix of bank and institutional holders, reshaping ownership of one of Nigeria's oldest payments firms.

Read more: ambusinessng.com

Image credit: ITU Pictures