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ANGELA ANEKE
Non Executive Director, UBA Plc
I sit on three committees on the board of UBA. The board Audit and Governance committee which I chair and which sees me traveling around Africa in an advisory role to assist in strengthening the gover- nance structures in our subsidiaries; I also sit on the credit committee as well as the Finance and General purpose committee.
I attribute my career entirely to God. He is the one who has given me gifts and skills which includes the gift of hard work. I have also been very fortunate to have bosses who have recognized my talents and abilities and stretched me, giving me opportunities to rise to the challenge. The support on the home front is absolutely fundamental and most important for every career woman’s success. Behind every successful man is a woman; the reverse is also true.
I am not one to focus on being a woman. That would be a draw back and it is limiting. I never look in the room to see if I’m the only women there. Previously when I served as chair on the F&GPC com- mittee on the board of the bank, I was the only woman there and it didn’t matter. I am an individual. I am not conscious of gender and have never been. I do however, feel that UBA’s board is very diverse from a gender perspective and the women are strong women. They aren’t there as tokens.
I am really happy for UBA, Africas global bank. UBA owns its name, The United Bank for Africa. Its presence in many countries in Africa is evident with 40% of profits already coming from outside Nigeria and from the rest of Africa. It would be great to see UBA present in more countries in Africa in the coming years.
AISHA NA’ALLAH
Head, Strategic Business Group, NORTH 5
I am currently a Deputy General Manager at UBA and I head the Strategic Business Group, North 5. I have strong capabilities in rela- tionship management, team building/coordination, effective lead- ership-inter-personal skills and Business Development track record and I have won several high performance awards and letters of appreciation over my career because of this. I also have strong competencies in retail, commercial and public sector banking.
Being in top management at UBA makes me feel humbly at peace with myself and I owe my successes to the Grace of God Almighty of course. The traits that I make sure I imbibe when carrying out my job are: a ‘can do spirit’ - always have the determination to succeed; interpersonal skills - you should always have respect for human beings irrespective of status as an ordinary person today could be a VIP tomorrow; and patience - it takes time to navigate the ladder of success so do not be intimidated by any situation and never give up.
My advice for young women coming up the corporate ladder is be ready to work 3 times harder than your male counter-part. Love your work and your organisation un-conditionally as the reward for goodness is always goodness. Leave no one in doubt that the position you occupy is on merit. Ensure anybody that comes across you remembers you positively. Believe in yourself and always go the extra mile. Be supportive and build friendships with your colleagues and superiors. Be resourceful and intellectually sound. Lastly, respect your husband as the head of the family if you intend to keep your marriage as you grow carrier -but be firm, we are ‘Africans’. Besides, your relationship with your spouse is likely to impact the relationship with the so many men you would meet outside.
I wish my Bank greater success as we continue to give the best of bank- ing services to our customers. The success story has just begun, our Bank shall be number one in all performance parameters very soon.
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