Banking

UBA Grows Profits by 41% in Q1 2017

Published

9 years ago

28/04/2017

By Dipo Olowookere

United Bank for Africa (UBA) on Thursday released its unaudited first quarter results, showing significant growth across major income lines.

The top Nigerian lender started off 2017 on a good note with an impressive 41 percent year-on-year growth in profit-before-tax in the first three months of the year.

Last year, the Pan African financial institution recorded a sterling performance.

UBA recorded N25.5 billion in profit before tax in the first quarter, ending March 31, 2017, compared with N18.1 billion achieved in the first quarter of 2016, boosted by strong growth in both interest and non-interest income as well as increased efficiency.

The Group also recorded a profit after tax of N22.4 billion in the first quarter, an impressive 32 percent year-on-year growth compared to N17.0 billion achieved in the corresponding period of 2016, also sustaining its strong profitability recording an annualized 19.4% Return on Average equity (RoAE).

Driven by an unprecedented 43 percent year-on-year growth in interest income, UBA Group recorded a 38 percent year-on-year growth in gross earnings to close at N101.2 billion for the three months period ending March 2017, compared to N73.7 billion recorded in the first three months of the year 2016.

Group Managing Director/CEO of UBA, Mr Kennedy Uzoka, expressed satisfaction with the bank’s impressive performance in the first quarter of 2017, despite intensifying competition and a very challenging business environment.

He said, “Our performance in the first quarter of the year strengthens our optimism on economic and business recovery in Nigeria and many of our markets across Africa. More importantly, this result is evidence of efficiency gains in our pricing, balance sheet management and operations.”

Furthermore, he said, “Driven by our balance sheet liquidity, we grew interest income by 43 percent to an unprecedented quarterly run-rate of N77 billion.

“Buoyed by improving foreign currency supply in Nigeria, remittance and trade services fees almost doubled and foreign currency trading income grew by 148 percent year-on-year, as we leveraged our Customer First initiatives to gain market share in these offerings.

“More so, it is my pleasure to report that we made further progress in our consistent retail penetration, as reflected in the 12 percent year-to-date growth in retail savings and current account deposits.

“Notwithstanding the tight interest rate environment, we recorded a 30bps reduction in cost of funds to 3.4 percent, a positive result of our customer service-led approach to low cost deposit mobilization. As at Q1, low cost savings and current accounts (CASA) represent 80 percent of our deposit funding.”

While emphasizing the increasing relevance of its African operations to its bottom line, Mr Uzoka said, “Our businesses outside Nigeria continued to wax stronger, contributing 35 percent of our earnings.

“We remained prudent in risk asset creation growing net loans by 2 percent year-to-date, as we have continued to monitor development in key sectors of the economy to take advantage of emerging bankable opportunities in due time.

“Albeit the structural challenges that exist in Africa, the opportunities and returns are immense and compelling. We will deepen our penetration across our chosen markets, as we diligently execute our strategies for consistent market share gain.”

Also speaking on UBA’s financial performance and position, the Group CFO, Mr Ugo Nwaghodoh, said the Bank’s performance in the first quarter further proves its resilience and very strong prospect of the business across its chosen markets.

He said that beyond the sterling growth in top and bottom lines, he remained particularly impressed with the quality of the earnings, which reflects the bank’s focus on the core business of financial intermediation and transaction banking.

“We remain steadfast on our prudent and proactive risk management, which helps to minimize the impact of the macroeconomic pressures on our portfolio. Our non-performing Loan ratio stood at 3.95 percent, with a 136 percent provisions coverage, inclusive of regulatory risk reserve.

“We remain well capitalized and liquid to fulfil our growth strategy; 19.4 percent BASEL II capital adequacy ratio and 41 percent liquidity ratio, which present opportunity to explore the headroom in our low LTD of 61 percent.”

Banking

Secure IT, StockMed, 18 Others Make Wema Bank Hackaholics 6.0 Top 20 List

Published

3 days ago

18/12/2025

Modupe Gbadeyanka

By Modupe Gbadeyanka

The six edition of the Hackaholics of Wema Bank Plc has produced 20 top finalists shared equally between two streams, Ideathon and Hackathon.

The Hackathon finalists are Rapid DEV, Secure IT, Neurafeed, Trust Lock Babcock, Pulse Track, IlluminiTrust, Trust Lock FUTA, Fix Fraud AI, KASH Flow and VOC AI.

The Ideathon finalists include PLOY, Fertitude, VarsityScape, Mama ALERT, StockMed, Chao, All Arbitrate, FarmSlate, Sane AI and Cycle X.

They emerged after a two-day pre-pitch held on December 16 and 17, 2025, for the grand finale slated for Friday, December 19, 2025.

They grand finale of Hackaholics 6.0 will convene the top players in Africa’s tech and innovation ecosystem, creating an avenue for these finalists to not only put their creativity to the ultimate test but also give their solutions visibility to potential investors for additional funding opportunities beyond the prizes to be won.

The prizes to be won for the Ideathon include N25 million for the winner, N20 million for the first runner-up, N15 million for the second runner-up and N5 million each for two women-led teams.

In the Hackathon category, the first to fourth-place winners will receive N20 million, N15 million, N10 million and N5 million, respectively.

The pre-pitch saw the top 43 contenders battle in a game of innovation and problem solving, presenting compelling pitches for a chance to make it to top 10 in their respective streams.

After a rigorous stretch of pitches and presentations, the top 20 emerged, securing their spot in the grand finale of Hackaholics 6.0.

“Hackaholics started off as a hackathon and morphed into an ideation. For Hackaholics 6.0, the sixth edition, we decided to give both the builders of new solutions and the refiners of existing ones, an opportunity to make meaningful impact.

“For us at Wema Bank, we understand that innovation isn’t just building from scratch. Sometimes, it’s looking at what exists and developing new ways to optimise that and create more efficiency. This is the idea behind our two-stream Ideathon-Hackathon structure.

“Every year, Hackaholics shows us just how eager and motivated Nigerian youth are when it comes to exploring creativity and innovation, and we are honoured to be the institution that provides them with the platform and resources to put this drive to good use.

“We toured seven cities, indulged 1,460 participants and discovered hundreds of remarkable ideas; some of which needed some refining and some of which deserved to move to the next stage.

“For those who needed to go back to the drawing board, we provided useful guidance and for the top contenders, we were able to shortlist to the top 43, who proceeded to the pre-pitch. To every participant, Wema Bank is proud of you. This is just the beginning,” the chief executive of Wema Bank, Mr Moruf Oseni, said.

Banking

Customs to Penalise Banks for Delayed Revenue Remittance

Published

3 days ago

18/12/2025

Adedapo Adesanya

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) says it will enforce penalties against designated banks that delay the remittance of customs revenue, in a move aimed at strengthening transparency and safeguarding government earnings.

This was disclosed in a statement on the NCS official account on X, formerly known as Twitter and signed by its spokesman, Mr Abdullahi Maiwada, who said the delays undermine the efficiency, transparency, and integrity of government revenue administration.

“The Nigeria Customs Service has noted instances of delayed remittance of customs revenue by some designated banks following reconciliation of collections processed through the B’odogwu platform,” the statement read.

“Such delays constitute a breach of remittance obligations and negatively impact the efficiency, transparency, and integrity of government revenue administration.

“In line with the provisions of the Service Level Agreement executed between the Nigeria Customs Service and designated banks, the Service hereby notifies stakeholders of the commencement of enforcement actions against banks found to be in default of agreed remittance timelines.”

Mr Maiwada disclosed that any bank that fails to remit collected Customs revenue within the prescribed timeline will be liable to penalty interest calculated at three per cent above the prevailing Nigerian Interbank Offered Rate for the period of the delay.

He added that affected banks would be formally notified of the delayed amounts, the applicable penalty, and the deadline for settlement.

“Accordingly, any designated bank that fails to remit collected Customs revenue within the prescribed period shall be liable to penalty interest calculated at three per cent above the prevailing Nigerian Interbank Offered Rate for the duration of the delay.

“Affected banks will receive formal notifications indicating the delayed amount, applicable penalty, and the timeline for settlement,” the statement read.

Banking

First Bank Deputy MD Sells Off 11.8m First Holdco Shares Worth N366.9m

Published

3 days ago

18/12/2025

Aduragbemi Omiyale

By Aduragbemi Omiyale

The deputy managing director of First Bank of Nigeria (FBN) Limited, Mr Ini Ebong, has offloaded some shares of FBN Holdings Plc, the parent firm of the banking institution.

A regulatory notice from the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited confirmed the development on Thursday.

It was disclosed that the transaction occurred on Friday, December 12, 2025, on the floor of the stock exchange.

The sale involved about 11.8 million shares, precisely 11,783,333 units traded at N31.14 per share, amounting to about N366.9 million.

Mr Ebong, who studied Architecture from University of Ife and obtained Bachelor and Master of Science degrees, became the DMD of First Bank in June 2024. Prior to this appointment, he was Executive Director, Treasury and International Banking since January 2022.

He was previously the Group Executive, Treasury and International Banking, a position he held since 2016 after serving as the bank’s Treasurer from 2011 to 2016.

Before joining First Bank, he was the Head of African Fixed Income and Local Markets Trading, Renaissance Securities Nigeria Limited, the Nigerian registered subsidiary of Renaissance Capital. He also worked with Citigroup for 14 years as Country Treasurer and Sales and Trading Business Head.

He has a passion for market development and has worked actively to drive change and internationalisation of the Nigerian financial markets: foreign exchange, fixed income and securities.

He has worked closely with regulatory bodies such as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Debt Management Office (DMO) in assisting with the development of fresh monetary and foreign exchange policies, to broaden and deepen markets and open them up to international practices.

At various times he has facilitated and delivered courses and seminars on a wide variety of subjects covering Money Markets, Securities and Foreign exchange trading and market risk management subjects to regulators, corporate customers, banks and market participants.