UBA GMD to investors: We’ll raise revenue, pursue efficiency 

The Group Managing Director of Africa’s Global Bank, United Bank for Africa (UBA), Plc, Oliver Alawuba, has reiterated the bank’s commitment to increasing revenue and profitability across major lines, in the 2023 financial year.

In line with this, he also assured local and international investors that the bank, will focus primarily on the adoption of strict cost efficiency and optimisation, in its quest to achieve its goals for the 2023 financial year and beyond.

While presenting his Strategic Review and Outlook at the Investors and Analysts Conference Call on Wednesday, following the release of the bank’s result for the financial year ended December 31, 2022, he expressed confidence that based on the bank’s strategic business investments in the last year, UBA remains on the trajectory of achieving and even surpassing, its targets for the current financial year.

He said the bank’s primary business strategy is to continue to focus on the Customer – the ‘Undisputed Employer’, while leveraging on the key pillars driving our Customer First (C1st) Philosophy i.e. People, Process and Technology, in delivering positive experiences across all our touchpoints – physical and virtual.

“We continue to maintain a close focus on cost efficiency and strictly control operating expenses across the Group, including our new strategic investments. We remain very positive about our profit outlook for 2023. In 2022, we leveraged largely on our presence in key economies in Africa and beyond, where we offered products and services for our large customer base, serving the entire eco-system,” the GMD said,.

At the end of the 2022 financial year, UBA delivered gross earnings of N853 billion, up 29.2 per cent on the prior year, and an operating income of N591 billion, representing an increase of 33.6 per cent from N443 billion in 2021.

Profit Before Tax increased by 31.2 per cent to N201 billion from N153 billion recorded in 2021, while Profit After Tax rose by 43.5 per cent to close the year at N170 billion from N119 billion in 2021.

In line with the bank’s overall objective of stimulating growth in the real sector, it grew its’ loan portfolio by N605 billion, or 21.4 per cent, from the prior year.

“In 2023, we have also come up with strategic business investments that will see us expanding on all frontiers to support our customers to do business with ease to support all our customers across the regions we cover,” Alawuba stated.

The GMD who also spoke on the Bank’s effort to improve payment services across the continent, said, “We are positioned to take Africa to the world and bring the world to Africa through capital and investment funds flows. We also remain focused on simplifying trade and cross-border payment across the continent with UBA, as one of the leading banks, championing the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS), an AfCFTA agenda and brainchild of Afreximbank which is currently operating in six pilot countries in West Africa – Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Liberia, and Gambia.”

Reeling off the Bank’s achievements in the just concluded financial year, the GMD said, “In 2022, we won the Bankers’ ‘Bank of the year’ award in Nigeria and six of our subsidiaries – Burkina Faso, Chad, Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Zambia. Recall, we won similar award in 2021 in Nigeria, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroun, Congo Brazzaville, Chad, Cote d’Ivoire, Gabon, Guinea, Liberia, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Zambia.

Also, the Bank opened additional operations in UAE (Dubai), increasing our presence to 24 countries, across four continents – Africa, America, Europe and Asia.”

On his part, UBA’s Executive Director, Finance & Risk Management, Ugo Nwaghodoh, assured investors of the Bank’s commitment to improve all income lines, while maintaining an impressive loan portfolio.

He said, despite the global headwinds across all markets, we commit to doing more this year by driving up revenues across all major business segments, coupled with the relentless pursuit of efficiency Group-wide.  As you may know, UBA is a moderate risk institution, this ensures that we maintain healthy loan book, with adequate collateral/on-balance sheet mitigants, such as deposits and other acceptable financial guarantees; this helps to provide a cushion, when calculating our risk weight,” he explained.