UBA Ghana Limited, one of Africa’s best and most resilient banks, posted a strong performance in the 2021 financial year, despite the difficult macroeconomic environment experienced last year.
The bank posted a profit before tax of GH¢219 million and in the process became the leading bank in terms of customer deposits. UBA Ghana grew customer deposits by 46.24 percent to GH¢4.1 billion in 2021 from GH¢2.8 billion in 2020.
Chris Ofikulu, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of UBA Ghana Limited, disclosed this when presenting the bank’s annual report and accounts for the 2021 financial year in Accra on Wednesday, May 11, 2022. Meanwhile, he attributed the growth in the bank’s profit to the bank’s digital platform and its focus on trade and retail. He said, “The bank’s digital platform contributed hugely to the performance of the bank last year.”
Mr. Ofikulu indicated that with the digital platform, customers could transact banking services in the comfort of their homes and that helped to attract a lot of deposits.
The CEO stated that the bank worked hard to reduce Non-Performing Loans from 44.3 percent in 2020 to 29.4 percent in 2021.
“What worked for us is just that persistence because we were not going for deposits, because we have the intention to keep our low-cost deposit at the highest, so what we do is to ensure that we do transactions that will generate deposits for us.”
Chris Ofikulu
Profit Before Tax Dropped
Mr. Ofikulu disclosed that the assets of the bank also grew to GH¢5.4 billion in 2021 from GH¢3.96 billion in 2020 driven largely by investment in securities and loans and advances to customers. However, he stated that profit before tax for 2021 dropped by two percent relative to the GH¢224 million recorded in 2020.
Mr. Ofikulu explained that the additional provision the bank made in line with the Bank of Ghana’s directive for some loans it granted about a decade ago caused the drop in profit before tax.
Touching on the Africa Continental Free Trade Area initiative, Mr. Ofikulu averred that his outfit was one of the pilot banks being used for the programme because of its strong digital system noting that the bank would rely on that to support the initiative and businesses.
Kweku Andoh Awotwi, the Chairman of the Board of Directors, UBA Ghana Limited, in his address, said “UBA Ghana Limited exercised financial prudence and stayed the course in executing our action plan to deliver sustainable, profitable, and socially beneficially outcomes.”
Mr. Awotwi stressed that “During the year 2022, the bank’s financial performance remained positive, and our focus remained on becoming a systematically important bank in Ghana in line with our vision.”
The Chairman intimated that the bank would continue to work hard to create value for shareholders. In spite of the strong performance UBA Ghana Limited posted last year, he revealed that the bank did not pay dividends to shareholders.
Mr. Awotwi explained that the decision not to pay dividends is in line with the Bank of Ghana’s directive. He added that in the future, the Board in coming years would recommend the payment of dividends.
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