London, England, November 27, 2014 — United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc, one
of Africa’s largest financial services institutions, swept the global
banking awards in London Thursday, winning in five categories to become
one of the highest single winning bank brands ‎at this year’s
awards.
During the event, organized annually by The Banker magazine, UBA was voted
‘Bank of the Year in Africa’ for 2014, trumping others to win the highly
coveted award for pan-African bank brands. This is the second time in
three years that UBA Plc has won the prestigious award; the first time was
in 2012. Four country subsidiaries of UBA Group in Sierra Leone, Gabon,
Senegal and Cote D’Ivoire also won “Bank of the Year” for their respective
countries, reflecting a brand excellence that cuts across national bounds
and pervades the continent. UBA Senegal won the award for the third
consecutive year, having won in 2012 and 2013.
Group Managing Director/CEO for UBA Plc, Phillips Oduoza, said, “winning
this award twice in three years is a recognition of our commitment to
delivering excellence and our consistent achievement of that goal. We
remain focused on the realization of our strategic intent of becoming
“Africa’s Global Bank” and continue to explore opportunities in markets
and sectors across the continent that will enable us achieve this intent,”
said Mr. Oduoza.
A publication of the Financial Times newspaper, The Banker is a global
financial intelligence magazine that provides global bank ratings and
analyses and is the definitive reference on international banking for
high level decision makers globally. According to the magazine, the aim
of the award ceremony “is to highlight industry wide excellence within
the global banking community.”
One winning bank is selected from participating banks in each of the 120
countries from which entries are received for the competition.
Associate Publisher of the magazine, Philip Church, stressed that UBA’s
performance at the awards is a testimony to the trust the bank’s clients
have placed on the bank and its operations over the year. “Being named as
Bank of the Year in your own country by the world’s longest running
international banking title is testament to the strong management, sound
business model and prudent risk approach of your bank” said Mr. Church.
Only last September, UBA won ‘Best Transaction Bank from Africa’. The
award which focuses on transaction banking does not only recognizes banks
that have made improvements to their investments in technology, but more
importantly how these improvements are of real use to the bank’s
customers, noted Jane Cooper, Transaction Banking Editor at The Banker.