The Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, United Bank for Africa Plc, Kennedy Uzoka, at the weekend said the board is committed to striking a balance between the group’s determination to become a truly pan-African bank with ensuring prudent assets growth while delivering healthy financials to stakeholders.
Speaking from his Lagos office during the Investors/Analysts Conference Call on Thursday, September 16, 2021, following the release of its results for the half-year ended June 30, 2021, he said: “We will continue to balance our growth appetite with the need to maintain a very good healthy portfolio of our assets
“We are very committed to the prudent and responsible growth of our risk assets, quality of our balance sheet, and the overall health of the bank,” he continued, adding that the bank recorded significant improvement in its operational and financial performance in the first half of 2021, due to its unending commitment towards delivering products and services aimed at meeting customers’ demands.
According to Uzoka, “our customer-first philosophy remains our guiding strategy. We want to assure you of a positive customer experience for all our customers. In addition, we would like to deliver our banking services only from the standpoint of our customers. And indeed, as we say at UBA, our customers are our ultimate employers,” he explained.
Whilst expressing optimism that the Nigerian economy and the broader economy will continue to recover and rebound from the negative impact of the Covid-19 pandemic in the remaining quarter of 2021 and all the way into 2022, the GMD assured investors and participants of the group’s commitment to maintaining professionalism, while ensuring strict compliance with the rules and regulations guiding its operations in all countries of operation.
“With the trusted commitment of all our great and wonderful employees, board and management, we will continue to match towards actualising our enterprise goals,” he noted.
The GMD expressed optimism that the group is on the trajectory of achieving and even surpassing its targets for the financial year, adding that its focus on delighting customers remains at the forefront of all its activities.
Also speaking on the group’s significant geographical diversification across key economies in Africa and beyond, UBA’s Chief Financial Officer, Ugo Nwaghodoh, said UBA recorded impressive growth in interest incomes and net incomes, with steady growth in funding and deposits from customers.
For him, although the operating environment remains largely uncertain and volatile, despite marked improvement from Covid-19 induced macroeconomic stress, UBA will continue to build resilience through its geographically diversified business model to support headline earnings growth for the Group.
“We remain committed to our 18% and 15% respective RoAE and deposit growth guidance for FY 2021, as we continue to invest in growth opportunities across our geographies of operation, whilst managing capital and balance sheet prudently,” Nwaghodoh said.
UBA delivered a 33.4% appreciation in its profit before tax which rose to N76.2bn as of June 2021, up from N57.1bn recorded in the same period of 2020, translating to an annualised Return on Average Equity of 17.5% as against 14.4% a year earlier. Profit after tax grew to N60.6bn representing a significant rise by 36.3% compared to N44.4bn recorded in 2020, while gross earnings grew to N316bn from N300.6bn as of June 2020; a 5.1% growth
This feat was recorded despite the challenging business and economic environment that emerged from the slow pace of activities following the global lockdown occasioned by the Covid-19 pandemic.
