- UBA Ghana Targets Top-Five Banking Position as MD Pledges Credit Growth
United Bank for Africa Ghana is targeting a place among the country’s top five banks within the next three years, as the lender seeks to build on its strongest financial performance in five years without compromising the strict underwriting discipline that has helped it maintain one of the lowest non-performing loan ratios in the industry.
Speaking with NorvanReports on the sidelines of the bank’s Annual General Meeting, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Bernard Appiah Gyebi said UBA Ghana intends to grow its credit portfolio, deepen profitability and expand support to businesses while protecting the asset quality gains recorded in its 2025 accounts.
“By the time I’m done with my tenure in three years, I believe that UBA will be among the top five banks in the country,” Mr Gyebi said.
The ambition follows a strong 2025 performance in which UBA Ghana’s profit before tax rose 148% to GH¢629.93 million, from GH¢253.58 million in 2024. Profit after tax also increased to GH¢407.1 million, compared with GH¢164.31 million in the previous year, while gross earnings rose to GH¢1.46 billion.
Total assets grew by 17% to GH¢11.54 billion, while customer deposits increased by 18% to GH¢8.59 billion, reflecting what management described as continued confidence in the bank’s stability and service proposition. Net loans also rose to about GH¢1.28 billion, from GH¢1.14 billion in 2024.
But for Mr Gyebi, the next phase of growth will not pursue relaxed credit standards. “You don’t necessarily have to compromise underwriting standards in order to grow your credit,” he said. “There is a lot of excellent credit out there.”
According to him, Ghana’s improving macroeconomic environment, falling interest rates, and stronger borrower conditions should help support credit growth while reducing the risk of defaults.
“The more robust the improvement in the macroeconomic environment, it actually helps to improve credit quality. Lowering interest rates makes it easier for borrowers to repay their credits. And so the default rates are going to be low,” he said.
UBA Ghana’s asset quality has become one of its strongest talking points in a banking industry where elevated non-performing loans remain a persistent concern. The bank’s own annual report notes that industry non-performing loan ratios remained above 20% between 2024 and 2025, with impaired loans exceeding GH¢21 billion, underscoring the structural credit risk challenge facing the sector.
Mr Gyebi acknowledged that UBA Ghana had historically been conservative in lending but said that conservatism was matched by strict credit policy, clear risk appetite and strong recovery practices.
“We have very strict underwriting guidelines. Our credit policy is very clear, we are very clear with our risk appetite,” he said. “We don’t go into any areas where we don’t have the right understanding and capacity to underwrite and recover.”
He said the bank’s credit culture is built around the full credit life cycle from origination and underwriting to monitoring, collection and recovery.
“All credit actually starts with underwriting. When you underwrite very good credits to good customers in areas where you know you have the capacity, it becomes easier for you,” he said. “We do constant and regular monitoring. It is something that we don’t sleep on.”
The MD said UBA Ghana’s leadership team would bring additional depth to credit expansion, citing his own background in risk management and credit, as well as the structured finance experience of the bank’s Executive Director.
“With myself coming on board as the MD, I have a strong risk management and credit background. My Executive Director also comes from a very strong structured finance background,” he said.
For businesses, the implication is that UBA Ghana intends to lend more, but not indiscriminately. The bank, he said, will focus on customers with strong character, clear track records and business models it understands.
“We grant facilities to customers who we know have the capability to perform,” Mr Gyebi said. “As bankers, our duty is to enhance the business of our customers. So any customer who is doing well in their field and wants to expand, we are there to support them.”
He added that character remains central to the bank’s credit decision-making.
“We look at a customer’s character very well. By character, I mean their track record. If you have a good track record, the chances of you being a good debtor is good,” he said.
The bank also intends to sharpen its focus on the SME segment, despite wider industry concerns that small and medium-sized enterprises often carry higher default risk.
He also said UBA Ghana has rolled out a new SME proposition designed to provide more flexible support to small businesses, including lending structures that do not always require landed property as security.
“We have a new SME proposition that we have rolled out which is very, very flexible,” he said. “We have identified ways in which we can grant facilities to customers in the SME sector without necessarily taking landed property as security and yet be able to lend to them.”
The bank’s SME push will be supported partly by risk-sharing arrangements, including backing from the African Guarantee Fund, and by UBA Ghana’s branch presence in major trading and SME clusters, he told NorvanReports
The bank currently operates 29 fully networked branches, two cash offices, more than 60 ATMs and digital channels serving customers across Ghana. Its network covers major commercial centres including Accra, Tema, Kumasi, Takoradi, Tamale, Tarkwa and Aflao.
Mr Gyebi said branches in places such as Kumasi Central, Alabar, Suame, Accra Central and Abossey Okai position the bank close to SME-heavy markets. “We are very close to where the SMEs are and so we are going to provide them with more solutions,” he said.
However, he stressed that the bank’s SME proposition will not be limited to credit.
“It shouldn’t be just credit that we’re talking about; it should also be digital solutions,” he said. “Everything is going digital now our payment systems, our transfers, et cetera, are all going digital.”
UBA Ghana’s annual report identifies digital transformation as one of the bank’s strategic priorities for 2026, with planned investments in advanced technology platforms, automation and next-generation digital capabilities to improve customer experience and reduce processing times.
The bank also plans to expand locally by establishing new branches in the Eastern Region, Bono East Region and Central Region, as part of a strategy to support trade across all sixteen regions of Ghana.
For UBA Ghana, the growth agenda comes at a time when Ghana’s banking industry is emerging from a difficult adjustment period marked by the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme, high inflation, elevated lending risks and tighter regulatory scrutiny.
The bank’s 2025 accounts show a lender that has rebuilt earnings strongly and grown deposits, assets and loans. But the next challenge is whether it can convert that momentum into market share expansion without sacrificing the risk discipline that has supported its asset quality.
Mr Gyebi insists the bank can do both.
“We can grow our credit portfolio significantly by focusing on quality credits, quality customers and quality clients,” he said. “By so doing, we grow our book without necessarily compromising our profits, loan growth and profitability.”
