United Bank for Africa Plc (UBA) has extended US$700 million (N113
\nbillion) in funding to different investors towards the acquisition of
\npower assets in Nigeria\u2019s recently privatized power sector. Phillips
\nOduoza, Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (GMD\/CEO), UBA
\nPlc, said this while speaking on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum
\n(WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, last week.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a growth sector we are playing very big\u201d said Oduoza. Besides
\npower, he said UBA is also heavily involved in Nigeria\u2019s
\ntelecommunications sector where the bank has taken part in most of the
\nmajor big ticket transactions.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
On agriculture, the UBA Chief Executive said the bank has continued to
\nchannel resources to the sector, given that it remains the mainstay of
\nmost economies in Africa. \u201cUBA has a deliberate policy to continue to fund
\nagriculture. Our lending to the sector is already above the industry
\naverage. We are doing about 7% of our total portfolio in agriculture\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He commended the fact that lending to agriculture is generally on the
\nupward trend from Nigerian banks, disclosing that banking sector funding
\nto agriculture has moved from just about 0.5% of total industry portfolio
\nprior to 2009 to about 4.9% of banking industry loan book currently.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cInterestingly, the non-performing loans coming from agriculture lending
\nis lower than most people would have thought.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Oduoza also explained that UBA is expanding its electronic banking
\nproducts to improve the way it serves its more than seven million
\ncustomers. He said that the bank has rolled out an array of electronic
\nbanking products, from cards to point of sale terminals, which is helping
\nto reduce the cost to income ratio of the bank while making a positive
\nimpact on the bottom line.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Speaking on the bank\u2019s operations across Africa, Oduoza disclosed that UBA
\ncurrently operates in 19 African countries \u201cand these are the very strong
\neconomies that we have in Africa and all of them are doing very well.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He disclosed that 14 out of the 18 country subsidiaries of the UBA Group
\nacross Africa have started returning profits.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He however explained that Nigeria still remains the dominant contributor
\nto the UBA Group\u2019s bottom line making up an average of 75% of the Group\u2019s
\nbalance sheet while the rest of Africa contributes 25%.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Oduoza, however, projects that in about five years, the UBA Group\u2019s 18
\nAfrican subsidiaries are expected to be contributing about 50% of the
\nGroup\u2019s balance sheet.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
On the forthcoming World Economic Forum, Africa, to be held in Abuja,
\nOduoza said that the bank is optimistic and looking forward to the event.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will enable the country create awareness about the opportunities that
\nexist in Nigeria. Nigeria is a very big market, the population is very
\nlarge. Beyond oil, the economy has started seeing some form of
\ndiversification which the outside world does not know. We are going to use
\nthis opportunity to showcase all these new sectors\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Oduoza was at the WEF, Davos to join more than 2500 leaders of companies,
\ninstitutions and governments to discuss issues arising from the reshaping
\nof the world and how that is expected to impact on society, politics and
\nbusiness with special emphasis on economic, social, financial,
\nenvironmental and technological trends.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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\u2019s recently privatized power sector. Phillips…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22056,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n