UBA positioned to meet Africa’s banking needs – CEO

The Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc, Oliver Alawuba, has said that the bank’s consistent investment in strengthening its digital channels has been paying off as it is well-positioned to meet the growing demand of its customers across Africa and beyond.

Alawuba said this during the visit of the bank’s new executives to the Nigerian Exchange Limited’s head office in Lagos.

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This followed the release of its half-year 2022 financial results to the investing public last week.

Speaking on UBA’s driving factor over the past few years, he said, “We have invested so much in digital banking. We have great digital banking capabilities and we also have a growing customer base. 

Today, we have over 30 million customers across various platforms and these customers are transacting. 90% of our transactions are done digitally and we are looking at 95% shortly. This has been helping us to ensure that we manage our cost of operations and to deliver excellent customer service.”

He explained that activities in the African market account for over 50% of the banks’ profitability, with room for even more opportunities going forward.

On plans and strategy for the remaining half of the year, Alawuba said, “As it stands, UBA can lead in Nigeria and in Africa, and the new management is here to ensure that UBA takes the leadership position in every country we operate.”

He also informed the Stock Exchange of UBA’s willingness to partner with the NGX to achieve its goals of unifying Africa. “As a bank, we can do a lot together with the NGX in the area of making sure that millennials and GenZ can key into the opportunities we have. 

While welcoming the newly appointed executives to the exchange, the Chief Executive Officer, Nigerian Exchange Limited, Temi Popoola, commended the UBA board, led by its chairman, Tony O. Elumelu, for what he described as a well-thought-out succession plan, which he noted was worthy of being emulated by other companies.