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Tag: UBA

  • UBA wins big at the Businessday Banking Awards

    United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc at the weekend carted home two very important laurels at the annual Businessday Banking Awards, winning the Best Bank in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Best Bank in support of Agriculture.

    The first award, the “Best Bank in sub-Saharan Africa award is in recognition of UBA’s leadership role in expanding access to banking across Africa. UBA has operations in 19 African countries with subsidiaries in major regional hubs.

    The bank also won the award for “Best Bank in Agriculture Financing”, for its consistent support to the agricultural sector in Nigeria, a substantial part of its loan book being devoted to agriculture and related activities.

    Speaking whilst receiving the awards on behalf of the bank, Charles Aigbe, Head of Communications, expressed his appreciation to the organisers of the award for the recognition of the unique role UBA is playing on the African continent in driving financial inclusion as well as supporting the growth of critical sectors.

    “Agriculture is pivotal to economic development in Nigeria and all of Africa. We are pleased with the recognition of our support to the sector. Our expansion to Africa has not only helped to diversify our earnings base, it has provided us with the opportunity to grow economies and partake in the development of Africa. We thank all stakeholders for their support and are encouraged to do even more” he said.

    Frank Aigbogun Publisher, BusinessDay, Nigeria’s leading business newspaper emphasised that the BusinessDay Banking Awards is the product of a rigorous process by BusinessDay’s Research and Intelligence Unit, designed to feed the editorial and also drive commercial research.

  • UBA drives customer service with technology

    United Bank for Africa (UBA)  is leveraging on technology to improve customer service offerings across all its service channels, its Group Managing Director/CEO, Kennedy Uzoka has said.

    He stated this at an investor conference held on the bank’s 2016 half year results. “We want to be in the best position to meet the customers on their utility curve, to ensure that we proactively offer forward looking products and services that will create unique customer experiences as well as beat expectations,” he said.

    He said UBA will not only be the first-to-market in new offerings, but will also offer bespoke products to its esteemed customers and serve them in the most efficient manner.

    “Our customers deserve nothing but the best. At the heart of the bank’s customer first strategy lies our process reengineering, as we diligently overhaul and streamline our processes towards our desired lean model,” he said, adding that the bank was already reaping from its process transformation initiatives as it has led to reduction in customer service costs, and freed human resources to be deployed to other segments of the bank’s business.

    “We are confident that our dedication to Customer1st initiatives will not only increase our share of existing customers’ wallet, it would seamlessly create new markets for UBA as customers increasingly become our brand ambassadors,” Uzoka explained.

    On the bank’s performance in the second quarter, the UBA chief said   he was happy to report that UBA delivered 18 per cent annualised return on average equity in the half year, despite the volatilities experienced in the macro-economic environment.

    He said the result further underscored “our ability to consistently deliver superior returns to our shareholders over the long term. We are taking proactive actions that will strengthen our competitive edge and effectively position UBA as the most preferred Pan-African Bank.”

    Given some specific figures on the performance of the bank, Uzoka explained that the bank grew non-interest income by 12per cent to over N52 billion in the first six months of the year.

    “This impressive growth in non-funded revenue is better appreciated when put in the perspective of the zero-COT regime, which commenced at the beginning of the year. Notwithstanding the challenges of our operating environment, the Group grew half year profit by three per cent to over N40 billion; an evidence of our resilient business model,” Uzoka said.

  • UBA declares N7.26b interim dividend for first half

    UBA declares N7.26b interim dividend for first half

    United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc shareholders have got some good news.

     The board of directors has recommended payment of N7.26 billion  as interim dividends for the first half of this year as the bank sustained stable top-line and bottom-line.

    Shareholders will receive a dividend per share of 20 kobo as interim dividends based on the first half results. The audited report for the period ended June 30, 2016 showed that profit before tax improved from N39.05 billion in first half 2015 to N40.27 billion in first half 2016. Profit after tax inched up from N32 billion to N32.62 billion. Gross earnings stood at N165.58 billion in first half 2016 as against N165.74 billion in first half 2015. Earning per share was flat at 94 kobo.

    The bank also recorded a significant growth in total assets, rising 20 per cent to N3.3 trillion, crossing the three trillion mark. The bank’s net loan position rose 29 per cent to N1.29 trillion, partially boosted by the depreciation in the value of the Naira. UBA also recorded a significant 16 per cent growth in deposits to N2.41 trillion already surpassing the 15 per cent target growth in deposits set at the beginning of the year. Another positive for UBA was a drop in cost to income ratio to 63 per cent as at half year compared to 64 per cent in same period of 2015. It is noteworthy that the bank maintained its strong asset quality, with non-performing loans ratio at 2.4 per cent; well below the CBN’s limit of 5.0 per cent for the banking industry.

    Group managing director, United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc, Kennedy Uzoka, said the results have been achieved amidst waning economic fundamentals.

    “We delivered profit in excess of N40 billion and grew balance sheet by 20 per cent, with our on-balance sheet total assets crossing the N3 trillion mark. Even as Naira depreciation and inflationary pressure increased the cost of doing business in Nigeria, we leveraged our economics of scale, enhanced operational efficiency and Group shared service structure to moderate our cost-to-income ratio by 90bps,” Uzoka said.

    He assured that UBA will sustain its culture of keeping a healthy balance sheet, with strong liquidity and capitalization, as reflected in the liquidity and BASEL II capital adequacy ratios of 45 per cent and 18 per cent respectively.

    According to him, notwithstanding the current slowdown in economic activities, there are bright spots ahead, especially as group sees strong prospect to grow market share across all chosen economies, through its enhanced dedication to customer service.

  • First Bank, UBA, Fidelity, Ecobank sell forex to 350 BDCs

    First Bank, UBA, Fidelity, Ecobank sell forex to 350 BDCs

    Not less than four commercial banks yesterday disbursed the first batch of Diaspora inflow-related foreign exchange (forex) to over 350 bureaux de change (BDCs), it was learnt.

    First Bank, United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc, Fidelity Bank Plc and Ecobank Nigeria Limited, sold the regulatory $30,000 weekly to each of the beneficiary BDCs, nearly three weeks after they got the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) directive on the matter. About $10.5 million was disbursed to beneficiary BDC operators at the interbank rate.

    In a continued effort to ensure stability of the exchange rate and to encourage participation of all critical stakeholders in the foreign exchange market, the CBN had directed through a circular to authorized dealers that all agents to approved International Money Transfer Operators (IMTOs) sell foreign currency accruing from inward money remittances to licensed BDCs.

    The foreign currency proceeds of IMTOs sold to BDC operators shall be retailed to end users in accordance to CBN regulation. Only BDCs that have been cleared by the compliance department of the banks as fully compliant with the KYC requirement were allowed to buy.

    The CBN issued a follow-up circular to all the banks, asking them to sell dollar to BDCs. In the circular titled:  Re: Sales of Foreign Currency Proceeds of International Money Transfers to Bureaux De Change Operators, CBN Acting Director, Trade and Exchange, W.D. Goting, said the authorised dealers shall sell foreign exchange cash to BDCs subject to a maximum of $30,000 to a BDC per week.

    He explained that a BDC shall nominate its preferred authorized dealer, a commercial bank, and can only procure the said amount from only that bank of its choice in a week. The CBN warned that any breach of this condition will attract appropriate sanction.

    The commercial banks, which are the authorized dealers, have been giving stringent conditions to the BDCs finally bowed to pressure from both the CBN to disburse the first set of cash. Nearly 2,600 BDCs are yet to get their allocations, and are at different stages of documentation.

    The banks had also obtained compliance set guidelines commitment from the BDCs before selling to them. Part of the commitment were that the BDCs would not purchase forex from any other bank, except its bank of choice; foreign currency cash purchased by the BDCs shall be sold to forex end-users at a rate not exceeding two per cent margin above the buying rate.

    The BDCs also pledged to ensure that purchased funds would be disbursed to end users and for eligible transactions only and shall render weekly returns on purchases from the banks to Trade and Exchange Department of the CBN.

    The BDCs further promised to ensure strict compliance to the provisions of the anti-money laundering laws observance of appropriate KYC principles in the handling of foreign exchange transactions.

    Reacting to the development, President, Association of Bureau De Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON) Aminu Gwadabe, said: “It is a good development and I am happy that our members are meeting the banks’ and CBN’s documentation requirement on the matter. I want the remaining operators to update their Know Your Customer details to enable them access their own funds”.

    Gwadabe, who confirmed buying dollar from Ecobank Nigeria Limited, said some operators are yet to apply, urging the banks to extend the disbursements to BDCs operating outside Lagos.

    “It is only in Lagos that we have seen disbursements. Kano, Abuja, Port Harcourt and Benin operators are yet to benefit. I want the banks to also extend the disbursements to BDCs across the country,” he said.

     

  • UBA opts for early redemption of seven-year N20b bond

    UBA opts for early redemption of seven-year N20b bond

    The board of directors of United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc has decided to exercise the call option for the early redemption of the bank’s seven-year N20 billion bond, issued in October 2010. The bond has a tenor of seven years with 13 per cent fixed rate coupon. The tenor of the bond ordinarily ends in 2017.

    The bank’s directors said they would be exercising their rights to redeem the bond earlier than its full redemption period.

    Under the terms and conditions of the Trust Deed, UBA reserves the rights to early redemption from the fifth year anniversary of the bond, being September 2015.

    The board assured that the bank has adequate liquidity to meet the proposed early redemption, noting that the exercise of this call option has relatively no impact on the liquidity and capital of the bank.

    A new helmsman, Mr. Kennedy Uzoka, last Monday took over as the substantive group managing director at the UBA. The Tony Elumelu-led board of UBA had in March 2016 announced the appointment of Uzoka, a former group deputy managing director, subject to the approval of the apex bank.

    Uzoka has most recently been leading the transformation agenda of the bank, after returning from completing the Advanced Management Programme of Harvard Business School. Uzoka has over two and half decades of experience in commercial banking, strategy and business transformation.

    Prior to his sabbatical at Harvard, Uzoka served as Deputy Managing Director, UBA group and was also the CEO of UBA Africa, responsible for the Group’s operations in 18 countries across Africa. The new GMD is a graduate of Mechanical Engineering from University of Benin and holds a Masters Degree in Business Administration from University of Lagos.

    The new GMD had already given a glimpse of the underlying vision and strategies of his leadership at the first generation bank.

    Uzoka has said the bank under him will remain committed to sustainably delivering superior returns to shareholders in excess of their expectations.

    He outlined that the bank’s African subsidiaries are growing stronger and the group has a target to increase Africa’s contribution to the group’s profit to over 25 per cent in 2016 from 24 per cent in 2015.

  • UBA denies funding Turkish coup

    United Bank for Africa Plc (UBA) has denied the allegations made in a Turkish newspaper that it funded the coup plotters with $2 billion. The Turkish newspaper, Yeni Safak, had alleged that $2 billion was transferred to Turkish coup plotters through the lender.

    Head of Communications, UBA Plc, Charles Aigbe said the allegation was not true. “UBA is aware of the on-going and spurious media speculation linking our institution to recent events in Turkey. In  the light of this, we believe it is necessary to categorically state that UBA has no involvement in or connection to these accusations, which are clearly false,” Aigbe said in a statement issued yesterday.

    The bank’s spokesman said the lender remains focused and firmly committed to delivering on its strategy to build Africa’s premier banking institution.

  • UBA chief stresses gains of African expansion

    UBA chief stresses gains of African expansion

    The outgoing Group Managing Director/CEO, United Bank for Africa Plc, Phillips Oduoza, has said the bank’s footprint and reach within the African continent comes with immense benefits, including cost cutting.

    At the fourth valedictory lecture organised by the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN) in his honour in Lagos, at the weekend, the bank chief said the lender’s African reach helps it initiate and complete Letters of Credit (LC) transactions within the continent.

    This, he said, saves time and resources for its customers. He said other lenders, without the African spread advantage, may not have the same advantage.

    He said the huge informal trade as well as the growing intra-African trade is opportunities that financial institutions operating within the continent can capture via the use of existing trade products, such as LCs.

    “The current practice for an LC confirmation is for it to be done outside Africa by European and United States banks even if the companies consummating the trade both reside within the continent. This need not be so. It is my strong belief that businesses conducted across African borders can be efficiently financed by eliminating the extra cost incurred when LCs are confirmed outside the shores of the continent. There will also be efficiency gains in the reduced time to confirm and negotiate LCs for customers coming from two African countries. As a Pan-African, UBA has provided and will continue to provide this unique service and support to its customers across the continent,” he said.

    He said the Pan-African banking model creates room for innovativeness and ability to benefit from economies of scale to be more cost efficient. The ability to group related banking functions together and provide service from a single platform could lead to huge cost savings.

    “UBA leveraged this concept by setting up a group shared services platform. The group shared services platform has been used to handle some routine tasks carried out at our business offices and subsidiaries, thereby cutting costs, ensuring standardisation and improving efficiency across the entire group. We established two platforms to handle some transactions relating to either Anglophone or Francophone countries,” he said.

  • Rencap, CSL Stockbrokers place 100% return on UBA

    Leading investment pundits at Renaissance Capital and CSL Stockbrokers have described United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc as a very attractive stock with potential to generate returns of more than 100 per cent within a 12-month period.

    Renaissance Capital and CSL Stockbrokers placed their “buy” sticker on UBA, underlining the attractiveness of the stock in spite of the general downtrend at the stock market. Renaissance Capital indicated that UBA could reach a price of N9.40 per share while CSL Stockbrokers, a member of FCMB Group, stated that UBA could trade at N7.21 per share. On the average, analysts’ consensus placed target price of N8.50 per share for UBA for the 2016 business year. UBA’s share price opened today at N4.60 per share.

    The investment case for UBA followed its strong financial performance in the first quarter of 2016 as well as its improved transparency and disclosure, which are now seen as benchmarks for Nigerian banks. Reflecting investors’ conviction in the strong fundamentals of the bank and the appetite for the stock, the share price had already gained 39 per cent so far in 2016 to rank as one of the best performing stocks on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).

    At N4.60 per share today, analysts hold that UBA still trades at significant discount to the intrinsic consensus valuation of the bank. UBA has maintained an average return on equity of over 20 per cent in the past three years, bucking the challenging economic environment and dwarfing peer performance track.

    The bank paid interim dividend of 20 kobo and final dividend of 40 kobo, bringing total dividend for the 2015 business year to 60 kobo.

    Market analysts at the weekend said they expected the first half report of the bank to be audited in line with UBA Group’s governance culture of auditing results twice in a year. UBA is audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers, one of the four global audit firms.

    Key extracts of the audited report and accounts of UBA for the year ended December 31, 2015 showed that gross earnings rose by 10 per cent while profit after tax grew by 25 per cent. On the back of the improved earnings, the bank paid a final dividend of 40 kobo per share, bringing the total dividend payout per share to 60 kobo or N21.77 billion.

    UBA Group’s gross earnings closed 2015 at N314.83 billion as against N286.62 billion recorded in 2014. Profit before tax rose from N56.20 billion to N68.45 billion. Profit after tax also increased from N47.91 billion to N59.65 billion. Earnings per share thus improved from N1.53 in 2014 to N1.79 in 2015.

    UBA’s investment outlook has also been strengthened by Fitch International, one of the foremost global rating agencies, and Augusto & Co, a leading Nigerian rating agency, which scored the bank high on its fundamentals.

  • Fitch, Augusto rate GTBank, UBA high on strong earnings, asset quality

    Fitch International, one of the foremost global rating agencies, has again adjudged Guaranty Trust Bank (GTBank) Plc and United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc, and upgraded its ratings for the two Nigerian leading banks, citing the banks’ strong earnings and asset quality.

    In its latest Rating Report, Fitch indicated that GTBank remains one of the top two rated banks in Nigeria. Fitch revised the outlook on the GTBank’s long-term issuer default rating (IDR) from negative to stable, citing the bank’s continuing strong earnings, and stronger-than-expected liquidity as the reasons for the revised outlook.

    Fitch Ratings also affirmed GTBank’s long-term issuer default rating (IDR) at ‘B+’ with a stable outlook and short-term IDR at ‘B’. In addition, the agency affirmed the bank’s viability rating (VR) at ‘b+’, support rating (SR) at ‘4’ and GTB Finance BV’s senior notes, guaranteed by GTBank was affirmed at ‘B+’/’RR4′. Fitch revised the bank’s support rating floor (SRF) to ‘B’ from ‘B+’ as a result of the sovereign’s weak foreign currency position.

    The IDR rating and outlook reflects Fitch’s opinion of the bank’s relative ability to meet its financial commitments and GTBank’s rating of B+ remains the highest credit rating in the industry. The viability rating (VR), which is a component of the IDR measures the bank’s intrinsic credit quality and capacity to maintain ongoing operations and to avoid failure.

    The report showed that despite the tough operating environment, GTBank remained strong and stable as indicated by its profitability track record, healthy liquidity state, strong asset quality and capital ratios.

    Also, Fitch affirmed UBA’s viability rating at “B” as the pan-African banking group continues to sustain its benchmark asset quality and strong profitability amidst industry and macroeconomic challenges. UBA is one of the few banks with strong risk management framework, which has helped keep non-performing loans ratio at a moderate level of 1.74 per cent as at the end of March 2016, as against industry average of more than six per cent, as reported by Fitch.

    Fitch also upgraded UBA’s outlook to stable from negative, thus reinforcing the strong outlook on the bank, especially as its diversified network across eighteen other African countries makes it relatively immune against the potential cyclical volatilities in any of its country of operations.

    The upgrade came as Nigeria’s foremost local rating agency, Agusto & Co,  upgraded UBA’s rating from “A+” to “Aa-”, with a stable outlook, citing the bank’s improved capitalisation, good liquidity and large pool of stable deposits, strong domestic presence supported by the bank’s extensive branch network and growing alternative banking channels.

     

  • UBA unveils new PayAttitude tag

    UBA unveils new PayAttitude tag

    United Bank of Africa has refreshed its PayAttitude tag design with the introduction of a new branded tag. The new tag, which reflects the brand identity of UBA, replaces the former tags being issued.

    Customers of the bank can continue to enjoy 100 per cent success on their Point of Sale (POS) transactions with UBA PayAttitude, the effective contactless payment solution.

    PayAttitude is a Near Field Communication (NFC) tag, with an internal chip that works on NFC – enabled POS terminals at designated partner locations across Nigeria. The new payment solution makes it possible for a customer to make payments for goods and services with UBA PayAttitude tag attachable to any flat surface such as mobile phones, tablets and even wallets although it is highly recommended to attach to a phone as your phone is always with you.

    UBA PayAttitude complements the contactless cards currently issued by the bank.  Only recently, UBA pioneered contactless cards in the country. Arguably, the bank has the most advanced and convenient payment technology within the financial space in Nigeria.

    Contactless payment offers a “tap n go” option of paying, which customers find fast, highly convenient and secure. “UBA branded PayAttitude tags can be obtained from UBA business offices. They come in two variants; the PayAttitude Debit and PayAttitude Prepaid tags, depending on a customer’s preference. This development again reinforces our commitment to the creation of innovative payment solutions,” Yinka Adedeji, Divisional Head, Digital Banking said.