- UBA Ghana Profit Before Tax Jumps 148% to GH¢629.93m in 2025
United Bank for Africa Ghana delivered a sharp rebound in earnings in 2025, with profit before tax rising by 148% to GH¢629.93 million, as the bank benefited from stronger revenue growth, higher interest income, improved efficiency and disciplined balance sheet management.
The bank’s profit before tax increased from GH¢253.58 million in 2024, while profit after tax rose to GH¢407.1 million, compared with GH¢164.31 million in the previous year. The Board described the 2025 performance as the bank’s strongest in the last five years.
Gross earnings closed the year at GH¢1.46 billion, up from GH¢1.27 billion in 2024, supported by growth in interest-earning assets and increased customer activity across key business lines. Interest income also expanded to GH¢1.13 billion, from GH¢1.04 billion, while income from fees and commissions increased by 38%.
The bank also grew its balance sheet, with total assets increasing by 17% to GH¢11.54 billion, from GH¢9.85 billion in 2024. Customer deposits rose by 18% to GH¢8.59 billion, from GH¢7.29 billion, reflecting what management described as continued customer confidence in the bank.
Net loans also increased to GH¢1.28 billion, from GH¢1.14 billion in 2024, as the bank cautiously expanded credit while maintaining what it described as prudent risk management. Shareholder equity rose to GH¢1.89 billion, compared with GH¢1.49 billion a year earlier.
Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Bernard Appiah Gyebi said the bank’s performance reflected disciplined execution, strong customer engagement and prudent risk management.
“Our performance this year reaffirms UBA Ghana’s position as a resilient and forward-looking institution,” he said. “We remain committed to sound governance, operational excellence, and contributing meaningfully to Ghana’s economic development.”
The performance places UBA Ghana among banks that have benefited from Ghana’s improving macroeconomic conditions after the difficult adjustment period that followed the domestic debt restructuring and earlier inflation and currency pressures.
The bank’s annual report noted that Ghana’s macroeconomic environment continued on a path towards stabilisation in 2025, supported by tighter monetary policy, improved investor sentiment and early gains from reform programmes. It also said the banking sector had shown resilience, with profitability rebounding across the industry as banks focused on cost management, risk discipline and digital transformation.
UBA Ghana’s 2025 results also show a bank leaning more heavily into technology-led growth. The annual report said the bank continued to deepen digital capabilities, expand access to financial services and improve customer experience across mobile, online banking, payments and transaction solutions.
The bank said its Ghana operations form part of UBA Group’s wider pan-African network spanning 20 African countries, with international presence in the United States, United Kingdom, France and the United Arab Emirates. In Ghana, the bank operates 29 fully networked branches, two cash offices, more than 60 ATMs and digital banking channels serving customers nationwide.
But the strong earnings performance was not without a governance and compliance blemish.
Board Chairman Kweku Andoh Awotwi acknowledged that the bank’s compliance record was not perfect in 2025. He disclosed that in September 2025, the Bank of Ghana suspended UBA Ghana’s foreign exchange trading licence for one month, a development he said caused the bank to lose revenue and clients during the suspension period.
According to the Chairman, the bank had to confront the regulatory breaches, conduct a detailed review and address the lapses. He said UBA Ghana had regained many of its loyal clients after the suspension and would intensify board oversight of compliance in 2026.
That disclosure is important because it introduces a more balanced reading of the bank’s 2025 performance. UBA Ghana delivered strong profitability, deposits and asset growth, but also faced a regulatory setback in a year when compliance, foreign exchange discipline and financial sector governance remained central concerns for the Bank of Ghana.
The bank’s 2026 priorities therefore reflect both ambition and caution. UBA Ghana said it will focus on accelerated innovation and digital transformation, financial and operational resilience, enhanced risk management frameworks, local expansion, customer-centred product innovation, ESG integration and leadership development.
As part of its local expansion strategy, the bank plans to establish new branches in the Eastern Region, Bono East Region and Central Region, with the aim of supporting local trade across all sixteen regions of Ghana.
The bank also said it will strengthen enterprise-wide risk management, including credit governance, forward-looking risk modelling, compliance structures and operational-risk controls aligned with Bank of Ghana requirements.
On asset quality, the annual report shows that UBA Ghana wrote off GH¢134.6 million in Stage 3 loans in 2025, which had been fully provided for. The report said all loans originated during 2025 were classified as Stage 1 and were performing as at the reporting date.
The bank’s credit risk disclosures show gross loans and advances to customers at amortised cost of GH¢1.34 billion, with Stage 3 loans of GH¢28.29 million and total loss allowance of GH¢62.79 million, leaving a carrying amount of GH¢1.28 billion.
That asset-quality position is particularly relevant in a banking sector where non-performing loans remain a concern. UBA Ghana’s own macroeconomic review noted that industry NPL ratios remained elevated between 21.8% and 23.6% between 2024 and 2025, with impaired loans exceeding GH¢21 billion.
UBA Ghana’s performance suggests that its strategy of deposit mobilisation, digital growth, risk discipline and pan-African connectivity is producing results. But as Ghana’s banking sector moves from stabilisation to renewed growth, profitability alone will not define institutional strength.
