The consolidation of United Bank for Africa’s (UBA) plc operations across Africa has had a positive impact on the Group’s financial performance as seen in its recently released audited 2014 full-year results. UBA, which recently restructured its operations, carving out UBA Africa as a separate business division headed by a CEO, is seeing significant improvement in the financial contribution of its African subsidiaries to the Group’s balance sheet.
UBA Africa, comprising the bank’s operations in 18 African countries outside Nigeria, has continued to increase its contribution to the Group, recording a higher contribution in the Group’s N290 billion earnings in 2014 compared with the previous years, reflecting the increasing penetration of the UBA brand across African markets.
The 2014 full-year results of the UBA Group show that UBA Africa grew its profit by 34 percent in the year, a remarkable achievement despite challenging macro-economic environment in most of sub-Saharan African markets.
“UBA is gaining critical mass across its target markets and it continues to leverage her innovative products to increase the share of customers’ wallet in the African banking space,” says Kennedy Uzoka, group deputy managing director/CEO, UBA Africa.
UBA Africa’s earning is receiving a boost from enhanced service channels, product offerings and customer service with a number of UBA subsidiaries in Africa becoming stand-out performers in their respective countries. For example, UBA Senegal has been ranked the Best Bank in the country for three years in a row, just as UBA Cameroon is ranked the Best Bank in its host country for four consecutive years.
“We are pleased with the current year performance, which reflects our commitment to deliver value to all stakeholders. We are optimistic on the years ahead and will profitably grow our African subsidiaries by focusing on the viable yet safe sectors of the respective countries,” Uzoka says, noting that the remarkable outlook of UBA Africa reinforces the revenue and risk diversification benefit that the UBA Group offers its shareholders.
In the full-year results released by UBA, the bank recorded a profit before tax of N56.2 billion and a profit after tax of N48 billion. Earnings received a boost from both interest and non-interest income showing the bank’s diversified and stable income base. Interest income rose 5.91 percent to N197 billion in December 2014 from N186 billion in December 2013, while non-interest income rose by 18.17 percent to N93.3 billion from N79.0 billion.
Ugo Nwaghodoh, the group chief financial officer, expressed optimism that the UBA will continue to record a steady and sustained increase in its profitability by leveraging on low-cost stable funds as well as rising opportunities in the bank’s target markets in Nigeria and across Africa.
“The performance of our African business was boosted by increased cross selling of our products and a number of other strategic initiatives. As we gain critical mass in the African market, we look forward to increased earnings in line with the diversification of our business across Africa,” according to Nwaghodoh.
UBA is one of Africa’s leading financial institutions offering banking services to more than 8 million customers across 605 businesses offices in 19 African countries and three global financial centres. With presence in New York, London and Paris, UBA connects people and businesses across Africa by offering innovative products across all market segments.
