By Gabriel Ewepu

ABUJA – THE Chairman, United Bank of Africa, UBA, Tony Elumelu, Friday, declared that resilience is UBA’s testimony as the bank celebrated 75 years of banking operations.

 Elumelu stated this at the 65th Annual General Meeting, AGM, last Friday where, where he commended the steadfast support of shareholders, considered   instrumental in driving the bank’s achievements.

 Ha said that not many companies in Africa can demonstrate this type resilience, persistence and commitment shown by UBA.

His words; “I salute our founders and look excitedly to the future, as we deliver on our mission to Africa’s Global Bank.

“Our Group delivered another very strong year, generating a gross revenue of N3.19 trillion and profit after tax of N767 billion.

“We successfully sustained our deposit mobilization efforts, growing total deposits by N42% to NN24.65 trillion from N17.36 trillion in the corresponding period of 2023.

“Additionally, our loan book expanded by 35% to N7.51 trillion, from N5.55 trillion. The Group maintained a well-structured and diversified balance sheet, with Total Assets and Shareholders’ Funds closing at N30.32 trillion and N2.42 trillion respectively.

“In line with our commitment to delivering superior returns to our highly esteemed shareholders, we declared and paid an interim dividend of N3.00 per share. If approved, the cumulative dividend for the year ended 31 December 2024 will total N5.00 per share.”

Meanwhile, the UBA boss maintained that “UBA is proud to support businesses, government, and consumers across Africa globally. It is worth repeating, we serve over 45 million people across four continents, in 24 countries, and with a corporate client base that is truly global. So when your bank is serving 45 million people, that is many countries put together as a population.

“As shareholders, I believe you want to know the efforts we’re making to comply with Central Bank directive to increase the minimum capital requirement for international commercial banks to N500 billion.

“Our current capital in the year of 2024 was N116 billion. However, following the rights issue that we launched in November last year, which was oversubscribed, 251 billion has been verified and approved by the Central Bank of Nigeria.

“However, given that it is a rights issue, we could only take up N240 billion in the amount we set out to raise in the rights issue. This left an oversubscribed position of N11.6 billion naira, which had to be returned to the shareholders. So we thank you, shareholders, for your unprecedented confidence and commitment to UBA.

“With this success, our new capital is now N355.2 billion. The remaining 144.8 billion required to meet the regulatory threshold will be raised later this year, and the proceeds from the rights issue will be duly invested in additional technologies and Business Growth in Nigeria, across Africa and the globe. This will further strengthen our group’s seven decades of impressive performance.”

Meanwhile, on the sidelines of the AGM, the Group Managing Director, Managing Director, UBA, Oliver Alawuba, said the bank has a bright future for shareholders based on the N5 dividend given to shareholders of a total dividend of N102 billion.

Alawuba said: “We will continue to pay good dividends to shareholders and today they are very happy, and when the shareholders are happy, UBA is happy, and we will continue to make our shareholders happy. The future is very bright, and I want to assure shareholders that UBA will continue give more dividends to them.

“The total shared dividends is N102 billion, and this is just the beginning and we will do more in the future.

Shareholders never envisaged that UBA will pay total dividend of N5.00 in one year.”

He also added that, “UBA is present today in 24 countries, none of our competitors has that number but now, today, we are going to say that we are increasing our authorization in France, we are investing more, big in digital banking, and all these will drive revenue to the UBA, and the higher dividend is feasible.”

Earlier, he (Alawuba) assured shareholders that the Bank has moved far from those difficult times, and will continue to advance beyond that point to do well.

“I would like to tell you that the primary focus of UBA is the customer. The customer is the reason why we exist as UBA. We want to make sure that we improve the customer experience. 

“These days, the best way to improve customer experience when serving about 45 million customers around the world is through digital banking. So we’re investing heavily in digital banking to improve your experience when you interact digitally or even physically with UBA. This is very important.”

Speaking on the performance of the bank, a shareholder, Patrick Ajudua said, “This is an exceptional performance, coming from a lower dividend, now paying N5, and that is the best in the industry for now, and that is also the first dividend we are paid at the higher level. So we are very much glad with it, and I expect a better dividend for the coming year.