In my article earlier this week, I wrote about a bank whose philanthropic gesture has affected young lives positively.
The truth is, Governments at all tiers can not do it alone, so, the interventions of corporate organisations and individuals will go a long way in shaping our future generations.
A Foundation, the Corporate Social Responsibility arm of United Bank for Africa in September called for entries for the 2023 edition of its annual National Essay Competition.
According to a statement, the competition, which is in its 13th year, is part of UBA Foundation’s education initiative aimed at promoting literacy and encouraging healthy and intellectual competition among senior secondary school students in Nigeria and across the African continent.
The statement said the 2023 edition would feature increased participation from senior secondary school students across Nigeria who could submit their entries from the comfort of their homes through the UBA Foundation NEC digital submission portal.
The essay topic for this year was ‘Will Artificial Intelligence take over human intelligence? What should students do to ensure AI doesn’t override but enhance their ability to learn through research?’, the statement said.
Students were expected to properly research, write, scan and upload their handwritten essays to the digital portal on or before October 20, 2023.
The first prize winner received an educational grant of N5m to study at any African university of their choice, while the second and third-placed entries won N3m and N2.5m educational grants to any African University.
Also, winners of the 12 best essays, went home with brand new laptops and other educational tools to help them with their studies and other tertiary research work.
The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of UBA Foundation, Bola Atta, said that with the digital submission portal, more students in senior secondary schools across the country now had the opportunity to scan and send in their entries and compete to win any of the educational grants for study at any university of their choice on the African continent.
She said, “We have worked hard to ensure that every Nigerian high school student who wishes to, will be able to enter the NEC 2023 and stand a chance to win a fully funded University education through the UBA Foundation.
UBA’s 115% growth in Gross Earnings
Little wonder the chairman of the United Bank for Africa (UBA), Tony Elumelu, gave an insight into what the group did to achieve the growth it keeps recording.
According to a write up by Goddy Egene, some months ago, United Bank for Africa Plc has successfully grown its deposits, indicating strong customers’ patronage following the bank’s technology-led initiatives targeted at improving customer experience over the past few years.
Consolidating on its recently released second-quarter performance, Africa’s Global Bank, United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc, has again announced a splendid performance in its unaudited financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2023, recording impressive growth across all key performance metrics.
Replicating the remarkable performance achieved in the first two quarters of the current fiscal year, the bank’s gross earnings grew by 115.2 per cent to N1.309 trillion up from N608bn recorded last year, while operating income rose by 146 per cent from N414 billion in September 2022 to N1.018 trillion in the year under consideration.
The bank’s financial report filed with the Nigerian Exchange Limited, indicated a whopping 262% rise in profit before tax (PBT) to close at N502.01 billion compared to N138.49 billion recorded at the end of the third quarter of 2022, while profit after tax also rose impressively by 287.2% from N116 billion recorded a year earlier to N449.29 billion, massively surpassing its annualised return on average equity for Q3 2023 at 131 per cent to 44.37%.
Yes, there is competition in every sector of the economy given the challenging environment. Competition in the banking sector is very fierce as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) keeps tightening its regulation in a bid to manage the economy amidst another recession. In the difficult economic situation and increasing inflation, consumers’ purchasing power continued to weaken. Hence, the major concern of most people is to have enough money to take care of basic needs and survive. Those who manage to save part of their meager income want to ensure that the savings are well secured in a bank.
They must have a high level of confidence in such a bank and United Bank of Africa Plc has become one of the preferred institutions by depositors.
UBA has been able to attract high patronage by customers using its technology-led initiatives targeted at improving customer experience over the past few years.
In a highly challenging environment, UBA was able to record a very impressive nine months results, which stakeholders are very confident would be improved upon at the end of 2023.
The pan-African financial institution recorded robust double-digit growth in its top line, with gross earnings rising YoY by 115% to ₦1.3 trillion in September 2023
UBA Group’s results for the quarter ended 30 September 2023, which show a strong and sustainable improvement in key performance metrics over the period.
As in the preceding quarters, UBA continues to maintain a very strong balance sheet, with total assets rising to N16.24 trillion, representing a 49.5% increase over the N10.86 trillion recorded at the end of December 2022, just as the bank benefitted largely from its technology-led initiatives targeted at improving customer experience over the past few years, with customer deposits rising to N11.63trillion, representing a 48.6% rise, up from N7.8 trillion at the end of the last financial year.
UBA shareholders’ funds remained very strong at N1.778 trillion up from N922.1 billion recorded in December 2022 again reflecting a strong capacity for internal capital generation and growth.
Commenting on the result, UBA’s Group Managing Director/CEO, Mr. Oliver Alawuba, remarked that the Group has once again shown sustainable and remarkable improvement in key performance metrics over the period, reflecting its commitment to delivering value to shareholders and various stakeholders.
Speaking on UBA’s strategy for an excellent performance by the end of the 2023 financial year, Nwaghodoh said, “Notwithstanding changes in the monetary and fiscal regime in some of our markets, we remain committed to driving sustainable and improved performance across our various business segments.”
United Bank for Africa Plc is a leading Pan-African financial institution, offering banking services to more than twenty-five (25) million customers, across 1,000 business offices and customer touch points in 20 African countries. With presence in New York, London, Paris, and Dubai, UBA connects people and businesses across Africa through retail, commercial and corporate banking, innovative cross-border payments and remittances, trade finance, and ancillary banking services.
Olamide Adeniji is a member of the editorial team of TheScript Newspaper
