Access Pensions: 2023 Audited Accounts Summary

Access Pensions recently published its 2023 audited accounts, providing a comprehensive overview of its financial health and fund performance. This report provides a summary review and presents key financial highlights, financial ratios, fund performance, and the trend in the number of Retirement Savings Account (RSA) holders.

Financial Highlights

• Total Revenue: The audited accounts revealed a significant growth in total revenue, reaching ₦12.35 billion in 2023, up from ₦7.04 billion in 2022. This increase is attributed to higher management fees, which was up 67% and to a lesser extent due to volume improved investment income, up 159%.
• Profit After Tax (PAT): PAT rose 71% to ₦3.78 billion, reflecting a robust growth compared to the previous year’s ₦2.21 billion.
• Operating Expenses: Operating expenses rose faster than revenue and PAT by 78% to ₦6.63 billion from ₦3.72 billion. This led to a slight increase in the company’s cost-to-income ratio, which rose to 53.71% from 52.81% indicating prudent financial management amidst inflationary pressures.
• Shareholder’s Funds: The company’s shareholders ended the year at ₦14.04 billion in 2023 up 15.6% from ₦12.14 billion in 2022.
• Return on Equity (ROE): The ROE was reported at 26.90%. Whilst this demonstrates efficient use of shareholders’ equity to generate profits, it is lower than inflation which closed 2023 at 28.92%.

Financial and Fund Highlights

Corporate Audited Annual Results

Financial Ratios

Fund Performance Highlights

• RSA Funds Performance: Access Pensions has all 7 regulated RSA pension funds available to the public. Only 3 of the 7 funds put in a better performance than the previous year, whilst all funds out-performed the industry benchmark returns (see our article on benchmark returns here).

Demographic Analysis

• Age Distribution: The majority of 330,000 RSA holders (83.9%) registered in 2023 fell within the age bracket of <30 years to 39 years, indicating a young and growing industry subscriber base. Of the 2023 registrations, Access pensions recorded 15.6%.

Conclusion

Access Pensions has demonstrated robust financial health for its shareholder - Access Corporation, in 2023, highlighted by significant revenue growth and strong profitability. In terms of fund management, improvements can be made and will be welcome from current RSA holders as well as anyone looking to use the transfer window to move to Access Pensions.

Watch out for the 2024 Money Counsellors Annual Report on Pensions. MCARP 2023 available here.