United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc has assured its 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.
UBA Group Chairman, Mr Tony O. Elumelu, who gave this assurance to shareholders at the 59th annual general meeting at the UBA Head Office, last Thursday explained that the bank had made strategic decisions that would strengthen its resolve to earn the industry leadership that it has envisioned in 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 added.
He said “our African operations excluding Nigeria, have contributed approximately 55 per cent of our profits for the year, illustrating that we are truly a pan-African bank.”
UBA Ghana, contributed 11 per cent of the Group’s Operating Income and 12 per cent of its profit before tax.
It also contributed nine per cent of the Group’s profit after tax.
The Group Chairman further explained that the bank remained committed to ensuring its viability amid an ever-changing business environment and to continue to 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.
At the end of the 2020 financial year, UBA’s profits grew remarkably by 27.7 per cent to GHS 1.59 billion, compared to GHS 1.25 billion recorded at the end of the 2019 financial year, whilst profit before tax was impressive at GHS 1.85 billion, compared to GHS 1.56 billion at the end of the 2019 financial year.
Gross earnings grew by 10.8 per cent to GHS 8.69 billion, compared to GHS 7.84 billion recorded in the same period of 2019 whilst total assets also grew by 5.6 per cent to an unprecedented GHS 107.8 billion for the year under review.
One of the shareholders, Sir Sunny Nwosu, who spoke at the meeting, commended the board and management of the bank 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 for ensuring that the African subsidiaries performed well by contributing 55 per cent 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.
BY TIMES REPORTER
