Nigeria, Nov. 3 -- Access Holdings saw its net profit for the year to September drop 5.9 per cent, compared to the same period last year, hammered by soaring cost of funds, even though revenue came out stronger, its latest earnings report showed on Monday.

What the corporation pays to depositors for holding their money and the interest it pays on borrowings, both jointly called cost of funds by analysts, jumped to N1.8 trillion from N1.6 trillion, consuming the lion's share of the interest it generated by itself.

For that reason, Nigeria's biggest banking group ended up spending 58.4 per cent of its total interest income on such costs during the period. That was up from 56.7 per cent a year ago.

The main pressure point on earnings perf...