By Tony Elumelu
Today (Thursday, April 7) UBA Group convened over 300,000 shareholders – physically and virtually – at our milestone 60th Annual General Meeting.
Africa’s global bank serves customers big and small in 20 African countries and across 4
Continents. We innovate and catalyse. Consequently, I was delighted to present the huge strides achieved by the Group in 2021, in my capacity as the Chairman of the Board.
Despite unprecedented challenges, the Group displayed an extraordinary ability to adapt, through innovation and resilience, delivering exceptional performance across our key financial metrics.
Overall profitability grew by 20.3% and we increased our shareholders’ dividend by 12.5%, a first in our peer group – and another demonstration of our commitment to our shareholders.
UBA was Africa’s Bank of the Year at the Banker Magazine Award published by the Financial Times of London, recognising our financial performance, commitment to excellence in service delivery and the Group’s unflagging role in creating economic growth across Africa.
We also won Bank of the Year in 12 African countries, breaking the record for the most awards won in the most countries, by a single banking group, in one year! Quite an achievement!
I am truly excited at what the future presents, because I am confident in our UBA Lions and Lionesses’ professionalism and adaptability, led by Kennedy Uzoka, in ensuring optimal service delivery in line with our Customer-First Philosophy.
I thank our 25 million customers across Africa and 3 global financial centres: London, New York and Paris, as well as our dear shareholders for their unwavering confidence in our efforts to create an African financial powerhouse, a dream that continues to unfold into a rewarding reality.
• Elumelu is the chairman of the United Bank for Africa (UBA).