UBA Ghana, the Ghanaian subsidiary of Pan African financial institution, United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc, for the year 2020 contributed 11 percent of the group’s overall operating income.
UBA Ghana’s income contribution to the Group’s total operating income, accounted for 12 per cent and 9 percent of the Group’s profit before and after tax respectively.
At the end of the 2020 financial year, UBA’s profits grew remarkably by 27.7 percent to N113.8 billion (GHS 1.59 billion), compared to N89.1 billion (GHS 1.25 billion) recorded at the end of the 2019 financial year, whilst profit before tax was impressive at N131.9 billion (GHS 1.85 billion), compared to N111.3 billion (GHS 1.56 billion) at the end of the 2019 financial year.
Gross earnings grew by 10.8 percent to N620.4 billion (GHS 8.69 billion), compared to N559.8 billion (GHS 7.84 billion) recorded in the same period of 2019 whilst total assets also grew by 5.6 percent to an unprecedented N7.7 trillion (GHS 107.8 billion) for the year under review.
UBA Group Chairman, Tony O. Elumelu, speaking to shareholders at the 59th Annual General Meeting at the UBA Head Office, on Thursday April 1, 2021, assured shareholders and investors of greater returns in the coming months, with the bank having established a diversified business model that ensures impressive performance even in periods of uncertainty, across its geographical network.
He explained that the bank has made strategic decisions that will strengthen its resolve to earn the industry leadership that it has envisioned in Nigeria, Africa and globally.
“We spearheaded strategic investments in our digital banking and technology platforms to further promote self-service banking; we have also focused on enhancing the capabilities of our people through various online capacity development programmes,” Mr Elumelu said.
“Our African operations (ex-Nigeria) have contributed approximately 55% of our profits for the year, illustrating that we are truly a pan-African bank,” he added.
The Group Chairman further explained that the bank remains committed to ensuring its viability amid an ever-changing business environment and to continue be a role model for African businesses by showcasing the best of Africa to the world.
“The work we have done in strengthening our governance structures Group-wide and in improving our business and operating models in 2020 positions our bank to benefit from these recovery trends and to achieve significant market share gains across our operations,” he noted.
Shareholders at the meeting commended the bank’s decision to plough-back some of its profits into business consolidation, adding that these times call for prudent and effective management of financial resources for all businesses especially those with high shareholding rate such as UBA.
One of the shareholders, Sir Sunny Nwosu, who spoke at the meeting, commended the board and management of the bank company for keeping up with its activities despite the Covid-19 pandemic and its resultant effect on major businesses.
Whilst advising the company to gear up efforts to increase dividends in the next financial year, Nwosu praised UBA’s for ensuring that the African subsidiaries performed well by contributing 55% to the Group’s business.
Another shareholder, Nonah Awoh, who agreed with the improvement recorded from the bank’s Ex-Nigeria’s subsidiaries, encouraged the management to boost other subsidiaries with the needed resources to help them perform even better in the current financial year.
UBA’s Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Kennedy Uzoka, who responded to shareholders’ comments at the meeting spoke on the reduced dividend pay-out this year, explaining that the bank had decided to be conservative to further strengthen the business.
He said, “As an institution that has been in operations for 72 uninterrupted years, UBA wants to continue to perform optimally. In line with this, we have used most of our funds to prepare for unforeseen challenges. Given the trajectory and the resilience of our business, we can assure you that we will meet and surpass the expectation of you our shareholders.”
Continuing, he said, “We have recalibrated our business structure, starting from Lagos and extending to the South-South. We have bolstered them with the necessary leadership to achieve our aim. We believe that with these measures we have put in place, our Nigerian business will give the rest of Africa a good fight,” Uzoka said.
United Bank for Africa Plc is a leading Pan-African financial institution, offering banking services to more than twenty-one million customers, across over 1,000 business offices and customer touch points.
Operating in 20 African countries with presence in the United States of America, the United Kingdom and France, UBA is connecting people and businesses across Africa through retail; commercial and corporate banking; innovative cross-border payments and remittances; trade finance and ancillary banking services.
