UBA African Subsidiaries Contribute 32% to Group’s Revenue

The United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc full year 2016 financials released recently have revealed that its18 African subsidiaries (outside of Nigeria) jointly contributed over 32 percent of the Group’s revenue.

The feat achieved by the subsidiaries was an improvement compared to 2015 financial year, when the businesses cumulatively contributed a quarter of the revenue. The results released showed that of the 18 UBA subsidiaries in Africa, 16 were profitable, whilst the remaining two subsidiaries showed strong prospect for becoming profitable in 2017, as the businesses recorded significant market penetration in 2016.

The Group Managing Director, UBA Plc, Mr. Kennedy Uzoka, who disclosed this expressed delight at the performance of the subsidiaries, particularly as he had direct responsibility for the subsidiaries whilst he was the Deputy Managing Director, before he was appointed the Group Managing Director in 2016. Notably, Kennedy, who was the CEO, UBA Africa until his appointment, successfully transformed the businesses within three years, raising the contribution of the subsidiaries to almost a third of Group’s revenue, from barely 20 per cent in 2013.

He added that all staff members were fully committed and diligent in executing the bank’s strategies towards improving service quality all its channels and across geographies. Hence, he reiterated his optimism on the positive outlook on the Group, as he believes that UBA has the capacity to sustain the strong growth in Nigeria and across the chosen markets in Africa.

Uzoka said: “We grew gross earnings by 22 per cent to N384 billion, supported by strong growth in both interest and non-interest income lines. The local currency weakness in a number of our chosen markets, particularly the Naira devaluation in Nigeria, impacted on our cost of doing business. Nonetheless, we continued to implement our cost management initiatives, which helped to mitigate the inflationary pressure on our operating expenses.”

Continuing, he said, “We will remain prudent in our risk asset creation, with diligent adherence to our risk management best practices. Whilst we will continue to grow across our operations in Africa, now representing 32% of Group revenue, we will maintain our culture of banking only quality and profitable assets,” Uzoka explained.