Following the exceptional performance in the first half of the 2023 financial year, Africa’s Global Bank, United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc, has said that it’s firmly committed to achieving sustained profitability by the end of the second half.

The bank’s management assured its stakeholders including shareholders, local and foreign investors as well as its teeming customers of its pledge to customer-centric values with the aim of building upon its successes to drive further growth by the end of the current financial year.

UBA’s Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Oliver Alawuba, who addressed participants at the H1 2023 Investor Conference Call Presentation on Thursday, explained that the bank’s impressive performance was characterised by robust revenue generation, prudent cost management, and strategic capital allocation.

According to him, these achievements have provided the bank with a solid foundation upon which to further enhance its position as a leading financial institution in Africa and beyond.

In its first half results ended June 30, 2023, UBA showcased its financial resilience and strength, surpassing expectations with remarkable performance as it reported a profit before tax of $0.5 billion, representing a rise of 371 per cent, compared to $0.1 billion recorded in the first half of 2022.

With that performance, UBA became the most profitable financial institution in Nigeria.

The result also showed that Operating Income grew by 206.6 per cent to $1.0 billion in June 2023; higher than $0.3 billion reported a year earlier, just as it delivered a 164 per cent growth in its Gross Earnings which rose to $1.2 billion as at June 2023, up from $0.4 billion recorded last year in June 2022.

Alawuba said, “These figures reflect our ability to finance future growth and help individual customers, families, businesses and non-profit organisations to carry out their projects. At UBA, we remain focused on our Customer First philosophy and growing our share in the various markets we operate.

Continuing, he said, “Thanks to our scale, geographic footprint and business diversification, we have numerous opportunities to grow, which should allow us to remain our customers’ first choice and to make the most of those opportunities, our focus is on implementing plans that enhance the existing network across all the countries and businesses and improving the profitability of our core businesses through disciplined capital allocation.”

He further promised that notwithstanding the accomplishments in the first half of the year, the Bank is committed to rendering excellent services to its customers and staying focused on its strategy and corporate objectives.

Just last week, the Bank announced the rolling out of a special financing initiative aimed at powering the growth of small and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs) all over Africa. In partnership with the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) secretariat, UBA is to inject up to $6 billion into eligible SMEs across Africa over the next three years.

“Under the initiative, SMEs specializing in agro-processing, pharmaceuticals, automotive and transport, and logistics will have access to tailored financing solutions. This move is especially beneficial for businesses that operate within these sectors which heavily rely on imports,” Alawuba said.

UBA’s Executive Director of Finance & Risk Management, Ugo Nwaghodoh, spoke of the bank’s investment in digital banking, adding that the bank continues to gain traction from its huge investments in technology.

“Our investments in state-of-the-art technology continue to yield expected results, evident in the huge boost of our digital banking income, which grew 53.7 per cent year-on-year to $0.07 billion. These gains have enabled us to optimize net earnings amid the accelerating inflationary pressure, currency devaluation, and increased regulatory induced cost,” he explained.

He added that focusing on the bank’s sustained growth across its African Markets, UBA remains focused towards delivering innovative and personalised financial products and services that cater to the unique needs of its diverse customer base.

UBA is a leading pan-African financial institution, offering banking services to more than thirty-seven million customers across 1,000 business offices and customer touchpoints in 20 African countries. With a presence in New York, London, Paris and now the UAE, UBA is connecting people and businesses across Africa through retail, commercial and corporate banking, innovative cross-border payments and remittances, trade finance and ancillary banking services.