United Bank for Africa Plc
(UBA) has extended US$700 million (N113 billion) in funding to different
investors towards the acquisition of power assets in Nigeria’s recently
privatized power sector. Phillips Oduoza, Group Managing Director and Chief
Executive Officer (GMD/CEO), UBA Plc, said this while speaking on the sidelines
of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, last week.
“It is a growth sector we
are playing very big” said Oduoza. Besides power, he said UBA is also heavily
involved in Nigeria’s telecommunications sector where the bank has taken
part in most of the major big ticket transactions.
On agriculture, the UBA
Chief Executive said the bank has continued to channel resources to the sector,
given that it remains the mainstay of most economies in Africa. “UBA has a
deliberate policy to continue to fund agriculture. Our lending to the sector is
already above the industry average. We are doing about 7% of our total
portfolio in agriculture”
He commended the fact that
lending to agriculture is generally on the upward trend from Nigerian banks,
disclosing that banking sector funding to agriculture has moved from just about
0.5% of total industry portfolio prior to 2009 to about 4.9% of banking
industry loan book currently.
“Interestingly, the
non-performing loans coming from agriculture lending is lower than most people
would have thought.”
Oduoza also explained that
UBA is expanding its electronic banking products to improve the way it serves
its more than seven million customers. He said that the bank has rolled out an
array of electronic banking products, from cards to point of sale terminals,
which is helping to reduce the cost to income ratio of the bank while making a
positive impact on the bottom line.
Speaking on the bank’s
operations across Africa, Oduoza disclosed that UBA currently operates in 19
African countries “and these are the very strong economies that we have in
Africa and all of them are doing very well.”
He disclosed that 14 out of
the 18 country subsidiaries of the UBA Group across Africa have started
returning profits.
He however explained that
Nigeria still remains the dominant contributor to the UBA Group’s bottom line
making up an average of 75% of the Group’s balance sheet while the rest of Africa
contributes 25%.
Oduoza, however, projects
that in about five years, the UBA Group’s 18 African subsidiaries are expected
to be contributing about 50% of the Group’s balance sheet.
On the forthcoming World
Economic Forum, Africa, to be held in Abuja, Oduoza said that the bank is
optimistic and looking forward to the event.
“It will enable the country
create awareness about the opportunities that exist in Nigeria. Nigeria is a
very big market, the population is very large. Beyond oil, the economy has
started seeing some form of diversification which the outside world does not
know. We are going to use this opportunity to showcase all these new sectors”
Oduoza was at the WEF, Davos
to join more than 2500 leaders of companies, institutions and governments to
discuss issues arising from the reshaping of the world and how that is expected
to impact on society, politics and business with special emphasis on economic,
social, financial, environmental and technological trends.