January - March 2016 •
The Lion King
• 19
“AFTER 10 YEARS, UBA
GHANA HAS COME OF AGE”
An amazon at UBA Ghana,
Abiola Bawuah, emerged the
first female MD/CEO of UBA
Ghana in 2014 and has since
driven the bank’s growth to
new highs. Bawuah joined UBA
Ghana as a Deputy Managing
Director in 2013, having
worked in senior management
positions in other banks and
financial institution, honing
her management and leader-
ship skills in the process.
ABIOLA BAWUAH
MD/CEO, UBA GHANA
B
awuah has an EMBA (Finance)
from the University of Ghana, a
BSc in Actuarial Science from the
University of Lagos, Nigeria, an LLB
from the University of London, and a
diploma in Marketing from GIMPA.
She also holds leadership qualifica-
tions from Harvard Business School,
Columbia, University of New York,
INSEAD and Institute Villa Pierrefeu in
Switzerland.
Under her leadership, UBA Ghana has
moved from 22nd to 10th position in
deposits and also ranks among the top
six most profitable banks in Ghana. In
this interview, she tells LKM her experi-
ence managing one of UBA’s most
profitable subsidiaries.
After 10 years of banking, would you
say that UBA Ghana has now come
of age?
Yes, UBA Ghana is now a dominant
force in the financial sector in Ghana.
We were recognised as the 7th most
respected company in the country
in Ghana’s club 100 rankings. The
bank is increasingly partnering with
governmental institutions on a number
of laudable platforms. This year we
moved from 22nd to 10th in deposits
and in profit we are top 6!
What has distinguished UBA Ghana’s
operations in the last 10 years?
Our customers still recollect with fond-
ness that when UBA was launched in
Ghana, we pioneered cashless bank-
ing, opening up access to financial
services to a large percentage of the
unbanked population.
In Ghana, UBA has always been an
innovative trendsetter and a leader
in the digital banking field. We were
amongst the pioneer Nigerian banks
that revolutionised banking in Ghana
taking it from armchair banking, to a
style that was purposeful and could
meet customers at their point of need.
UBA Ghana’s name is on the map as
we have supported the government in
a number of initiatives.
And what challenges have you
encountered?
UBA Ghana had a history of a tough
start. For a long period, we struggled
to break even.
Most recently, like Nigeria, we have
had to overcome the concentration
we had in one particular sector; ener-
gy. We are now implementing our
diversification strategies to enjoy the
abundance of lucrative opportunities
in the Ghanaian economy.
Another challenge we face is the lack
of local know-how both in Ghana and
in the group office. We rely too often
on Nigeria as a frame of reference.
10 years gone; where do you see UBA
Ghana in another 10 years?
In 10 years we want to be the number
one bank in Ghana. In the short term
we have a 5 year plan, we want to be:
•
the undisputed leader in digital
banking across Ghana by suc-
cessfully deploying our technol-
ogy assets to all classes of cus-
tomers (Government, Corporate
entities and Individuals) across all
sectors of the economy;
•
one of the Top Three banks in
Ghana across all our target per-
formance indicators consisting of
Deposit, PBT, Risk Assets, Cost to
Income (COI) and NPL ratio;
•
consistently excellent in customer
service, and be the reference for
superior customer satisfaction.
•
We want to grow and drive a
bank-wide robust collections plat-
form, and become the undisput-
ed leader in collections in Ghana
to compliment the renewed focus
on low cost deposits.
ABIOLA BAWUAH |
GROWING THE SEED
