Access Holdings’ fintech Hydrogen posts N966m profit H1 2025

Access Holdings’ fintech unit, Hydrogen, earned a pre-tax profit of 966 million naira in the first half of 2025. That’s a sharp 306% rise from the 238 million naira it made in the same time last year.

The company’s operating income surged to N4.1 billion in June 2025, up from N3.1 billion in June 2024, reflecting robust growth in its digital financial services and expanding customer base.

Operating expenses increased moderately to N3.2 billion, up from N2.9 billion in the previous year, reflecting strategic investments in infrastructure and innovation.

The year-on-year comparison highlights Hydrogen’s accelerating momentum:

• Operating income grew by 32%, from N3.181 billion to N4.192 billion.
• Operating expenses increased by 9.5%, from N2.944 billion to N3.225 billion.
• Profit before tax jumped by 306%, from N238 million to N966 million.

Access Holdings says Hydrogen Payment Services Company Limited has begun making a significant impact in the fintech industry with its seamless and reliable solutions for businesses in Nigeria.

Hydrogen’s vision is to build Africa’s most powerful business services network. Hydrogen offers a wide range of products and services, including InstantPay, Payment gateway, POS, Card, and Switch, which have been well-received by customers and the industry as a whole,” the group noted in the financial statement.

Bank-owned fintechs  

The rise of bank-owned fintech subsidiaries such as Hydrogen (Access Holdings), HabariPay (GTCO), and Zest (Stanbic IBTC) is a direct outcome of the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) 2010 regulatory directive mandating commercial banks to adopt a holding company structure. This strategic policy shift enabled banks to diversify into non-banking services—particularly digital payments—through independently licensed entities.

• GTCO was the first Tier-1 bank to capitalize on this opportunity, launching HabariPay in June 2022. The subsidiary has since evolved into a profitable fintech enterprise, targeting SMEs and retail merchants through its flagship Squad platform.
• Access Holdings followed suit with the establishment of Hydrogen in September 2022. Unlike its peers, Hydrogen initially positioned itself as a backend infrastructure provider, offering embedded financial services to other fintechs, banks, and telecom operators, rather than pursuing a direct-to-consumer model.
• Stanbic IBTC entered the fray in October 2023 with the launch of Zest, a fintech subsidiary designed to transform the digital commerce landscape. Zest aims to democratize online selling by removing entry barriers and simplifying the process for businesses to establish and scale their digital presence.

By separating core banking operations from ancillary services, the CBN’s framework opened the door for traditional financial institutions to compete more aggressively with agile, non-bank fintechs like Opay, Palmpay, and Moniepoint. These bank-backed fintechs are now leveraging their parent institutions’ infrastructure and trust to scale rapidly in Nigeria’s dynamic digital finance landscape.

As a group, Access Holdings Plc reported a pre-tax profit of N320.57 billion for the period ended June 30, 2025, representing an 8.12% year-on-year (YoY) decline from N348.92 billion recorded in the corresponding period of 2024.

• Similarly, post-tax profit fell by 23.25% YoY to N215.92 billion, compared to N281.33 billion in H1 2024.
• However, top-line performance remained resilient, with gross earnings rising by 13.81% YoY to N2.50 trillion.
• Access Holdings Plc’s overall performance in H1 2025 remained largely driven by its banking subsidiary, which accounted for the bulk of group profitability, posting a pre-tax profit of N303.0 billion and a post-tax profit of N199.3 billion.

The group’s bottom-line performance continued to benefit from robust top-line growth, primarily supported by stronger interest income.