Tony Elumelu, UBA Group Chairman, says his bank has made strategic decisions that will strengthen its resolve to earn the industry leadership that it has envisioned in Nigeria, Africa and globally.
He spoke at the 59th Annual General Meeting of the bank,where he also assured the bank’s shareholders and investors of greater returns in the coming months, with the bank having established a diversified business model that ensures impressive performance even in periods of uncertainty, across its geographical network
He said the bank remains committed to ensuring its viability amid a dynamic business environment and to continue be a role model for African businesses by showcasing the best of Africa to the world.
“The work we have done in strengthening our governance structures Group-wide and in improving our business and operating models in 2020 positions our bank to benefit from these recovery trends and to achieve significant market share gains across our operations,” he noted.
At the end of the 2020 financial year, UBA’s profits grew remarkably by 27.7 percent to N113.8 billion, compared to N89.1 billion recorded at the end of the 2019 financial year, whilst profit before tax was impressive at N131.9 billion, compared to N111.3 billion at the end of the 2019 financial year.
59th Annual General Meeting of UBA Plc 8: : l-r: Group Managing Director/CEO, United Bank for Africa(UBA) Plc, Mr. Kennedy Uzoka and Group Chairman, UBA Mr. Tony Elumelu, at the 59th Annual General Meeting of United Bank for Africa(UBA) Plc, held in Lagos on Thursday .
Gross earnings grew by 10.8 percent to N620.4 billion, compared to N559.8 billion recorded in the same period of 2019 whilst total assets also grew by 5.6 percent to an unprecedented N7.7 trillion for the year under review.
In its usual tradition of rewarding shareholders, the bank proposed a final dividend of N0.35 kobo for every ordinary share of 50 kobo, bringing the total dividend for the year to N0.52 kobo as the bank had paid an interim dividend of N0.17 kobo earlier in the year.
Shareholders at the meeting commended the bank’s decision to plough-back some of its profits into business consolidation, adding that these times call for prudent and effective management of financial resources for all businesses especially those with high shareholding rate such as UBA.
One of the shareholders, Sir Sunny Nwosu, commended the board and management of the bank company for keeping up with its activities despite the Covid-19 pandemic and its resultant effect on major businesses.
Advising the company to gear up efforts to increase dividends in the next financial year, Nwosu praised UBA’s for ensuring that the African subsidiaries performed well by contributing 55% to the Group’s business.
Another shareholder, Nonah Awoh, who agreed with the improvement recorded from the bank’s ex-Nigeria’s subsidiaries, encouraged the management to boost other subsidiaries with the needed resources to help them perform even better in the current financial year.
UBA’s Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Kennedy Uzoka, who responded to shareholders’ comments at the meeting spoke on the reduced dividend pay-out this year, explaining that the bank had decided to be conservative to further strengthen the business.
