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.