Tony Elumelu, the Chairman of Africa’s Global Bank, United Bank for Africa (UBA) PLC, has assured shareholders and investors of the bank’s unwavering commitment to sustain its current growth trajectory even as it is making efforts to diversify businesses across Africa and beyond to continue to yield increasing returns.
According to the Chairman, the bank’s strategic investment decisions over the past few years have indeed translated to huge returns for its investors, despite the challenging business environment witnessed in the last two years.
“I am proud of how as a Group, we have been able to further consolidate on the new capabilities we have built, novel customer solutions we have deployed, efficiency gains recorded and the growth prospects we have leveraged from a recovering world. These were the building blocks for the very strong financial performance and the growth delivered by your Group in last year [2021], which further confirms the wisdom of the investments we made and the strategy we have pursued, to ensure the diversification and sustainability of our business model.”
Tony Elumelu
Whilst expressing his delight to shareholders and customers who have stood with UBA for almost eight decades, Elumelu remained confident of the bank’s capacity to sustain the momentum, especially as economic activities recover from the impact of the COVID -19 pandemic.
“Our goal is to continue to build strong brand loyalty with our customers and create additional value for our shareholders, whose underlying support has positioned UBA for continued growth.”
Tony Elumelu
UBA Transforming African Economic Landscape
UBA’s Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Kennedy Uzoka, who went into details about the improved performance of the bank’s subsidiaries in the financial year under consideration, said, “We are happy that the global community recognises the role our Group is playing in the transformation of the African economic landscape through innovative and customer focused banking services.”
Mr Uzoka further disclosed that the bank’s business in the United Kingdom has specifically witnessed remarkable expansion since last year.
“As from July 2021, UBA UK started making profit, and even to date, they are still doing well, and the same can be said for many of our African subsidiaries. The truth is that we are driven by the opportunities and potential in each of the geographies that we invested in, and we are happy with what we have achieved so far”.
Kennedy Uzoka
The CEO thus, commended the board and management of UBA for the impressive financials which have translated to higher dividends for shareholders.
“Despite the economic situation, UBA has been able to grow profitability and increased its customer base. If you compare the dividend with the share price of UBA, you will see that our dividend yield is very high. No bank in Nigeria has been able to achieve this, and I therefore, commend the UBA board.”
Mr Uzoka indicated that at the end of the 2021 financial year, UBA’s Profit before Tax was impressive with a 20.3 percent growth to $373.8 million, compared to $310.8 million at the end of the 2020 financial year; while Profit after Tax grew by 8.7 percent to $289.9 million in 2021, compared to $266.6 million recorded the previous year.
As a result, he stated that the Bank proposed a final dividend of 80 kobo for every ordinary share for the financial year ended December 31, 2021.
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