4 | The Lion King
GMD’s Message
T
he first quarter of 2015 ended with
cheering news that the worst of the
Ebola scourge, which threatened
the growth prospects of many African
economies in late 2014, is now behind
us.
I would like to salute all staff, who
continued to work, sometimes day and
night, in the affected countries – their
dedication is a model to us all. I am
also glad that the Group acted swiftly
at that time with financial assistance,
in the form of the first African private
sector donation to the relief effort as
announced by our Chairman.
Fundamentally, the attractiveness of
the African economy will continue to
draw global interest and investment
inflows into key growth sectors, which
is bound to enhance banking oppor-
tunities in the region. Indeed, Africa
continues to offer enormous opportuni-
ty, which our Bank is uniquely positioned
to capture.
Given our large and diversified region-
al network, UBA remains the Bank of
choice to leverage these opportunities,
underlining the evident strength of our
African strategy.
The number of distinguished awards
received by UBA Africa last year is
a testament to our rising profile. Our
unwavering, passion, commitment and
dedication to rendering first rate servic-
es to our customers, earned us three
different awards from the prestigious
“The Banker” magazine, including an
award tagged “Best Transaction Bank”
in Africa for 2014, with UBA Sierra Leone,
Gabon, Senegal and Cote d’Ivoire
adjudged the Bank of the Year in their
respective countries.
In addition, the global rating agencies,
GCR and Fitch Ratings, re-affirmed
their long-term issuer default ratings on
UBA, emphasizing the Bank’s sustaina-
ble business outlook and performance
expectation.
Building on our
However, the continued dependence
of many African economies on global
commodity prices, as well as home-
grown security threats, will continue to
provide short term headwinds, having in
mind that the macro-economic outlook
has direct implications on the way we
conduct our business.
Knowing that the risk of non-performing
loans will increase, it is imperative that
we pay keen attention on the structure
of the risk assets we create and height-
en the monitoring of these loans to
prevent any form of deterioration.
We must take cognizance of
intense competition for low cost
deposits and the limited high
quality risk assets in the market
so as to play ahead of them.
In doing this, we must also
tighten our regulatory compli-
ance especially in the areas
of anti-money laundering and
know-your-customer (KYC),
not just in Africa, but across our
global operations.
It is my firm belief that, our
dogged focus on our already
agreed strategies will position
us to deliver, in line with
the Bank’s stakehold-
er expectations
by the end of
the 2015 finan-
cial year.
Thank you.
Phillips Oduoza
Group Managing Director / CEO
African momentum
