Union Bank Recovers N5bn Debts from Customers

By Dipo Olowookere

Debts worth N5 billion were recovered by Union Bank of Nigeria Plc in the first six months of this year, Chief Executive Officer of the financial institution, Mr Emeka Emuwa, has revealed.

Mr Emuwa, while commenting on the performance of the company in the first half of 2019, said this was part of the bank’s debt recovery processes, which were in sync with the robust risk management system put in place by the management.

According to him, “We have developed a concerted and clear plan to increase our risk assets with our loan book growing by 8 percent to N563.0 billion compared to year-end 2018.

“The ability to take on more risk is hinged on our robust risk management and debt recovery processes working in sync, which led to recoveries of over N5 billion in the period [under review],” the bank executive was quoted as saying in a statement issued by the lender.

In H1 2019, Union Bank improved its profit before tax by 4 percent to N12.1 billion from N11.7 billion in H1 2018, while the gross earnings declined by 9 percent to N76.0 billion from N83.3 billion in H1 2018). This was cause by a decrease in average earning assets in the period under consideration.

Reacting to this, the chief executive said, “To sustain growth in earnings, we remained steadfast in our commitment to delivering value and first-class customer experience to all our customers.”

He said in the first six months of the year, the company raised N30 billion 10-year bond in June, as part of the N100 billion debt capital programme and that the exercise was fully subscribed.

“With this new injection of tier 2 capital, we are well positioned to deliver on our growth strategy and priorities,” he assured.

He said, “Looking ahead, we will continue to focus on opportunities to deliver our simpler, smarter banking promise to our customers while improving internal operational efficiencies which will translate to enhanced shareholder value.”