United Bank for Africa (UBA) plc has announced impressive performance in its unaudited financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2021, recording growth across all its major indices, replicating the commendable performance it achieved in the first two quarters of the current fiscal year.
Specifically, the bank’s gross earnings rose to N490.3 billion, up from N454.4 billion recorded in September 2020, while operating income grew by 13% year-on-year to close at N331.7 billion as of September 2021, up from N293.7 billion achieved a year earlier.
In the report filed with the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Monday, UBA reported a 37% rise in profit before tax to close at N123.4 billion compared with N90.4 billion recorded at the end of the third quarter of 2020, while profit after tax rose significantly by 36% to N104.6 billion up from N77.1 billion recorded a year earlier, thus putting its annualised return on average equity for Q3’ 2021 at 19.2% compared with 16.4% recorded in the similar period of 2020.
UBA continues to maintain a very strong balance sheet, with total assets of N8.3 trillion, an 8% increase over the N7.7 trillion recorded at the end of December 2020, 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 N6.1 trillion, representing a 7.2% increase from N5.7 trillion at the end of the last financial year.
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The shareholders’ funds remained very strong at N798.3 billion up by 10.3% from N724.1 billion recorded in December 2020, thus reflecting a strong capacity for internal capital generation and growth.
Commenting on the results, Kennedy Uzoka, group managing director/CEO, UBA, said, “Once again, the bank has shown resilience in delivering on its commitment to shareholders, stakeholders, and the investing public, evident in the strong positive financial metrics recorded in the reporting period.
“Particularly, gross earning was up 8% to N490.3 billion in the nine-month period, mirroring the improvements seen in both the domestic and international economies as countries roll out vaccines, helping to return economic activities nearer to pre-pandemic levels. Similarly, our profit before tax was up by a record 37% to N123.4 billion, with an annualised RoAE of 19.2%, showing our renewed commitment to creating more value for our shareholders.”
The GMD pointed out that UBA’s prudent approach to risk management and the efficacy of its digital-first customer-centric business strategy, helped in keeping loan growth steady at double-digit, while still being able to moderate our cost in the period, adding “Through the help of our digital-first strategy, we were able to increase the number of our agent network in the period by over 140%, increasing our controlling stake in the market.”
Speaking on the expectations for the rest of the year, Uzoka said, “Looking ahead, we believe our huge investments in digital business following lessons learnt from the pandemic, will continue to pay off in delivering significant growth opportunities across our business operations even as the economy speedily heals from the impact/effect of the pandemic. We will continue to remain a bank holding company, leveraging on our robust balance sheet and diverse customer-base to deliver (above the expectation of our shareholders) sound rewards to our shareholders.”
Also throwing more light on the Bank’s financial performance and position, the Group CFO, Ugo Nwaghodoh said, “The performance reflects our progressive efforts in building on our robust balance sheet, strong customer base and our people, in delivering impressive earnings. Particularly, I am pleased at the 90bps improvement in Cost of Funds (CoF) from 3.2% to 2.3% in the period. This was despite the increase in our customer deposits by 7.2% to N6.1 trillion, portraying the Bank’s deliberate effort to substitute high-cost funds for low-cost deposits.”
He noted that UBA has continued to optimise its digital banking offerings, which has been paying-off hugely as evident in the 50.4% growth to N41.9 billion in income from electronic banking.
“As we continue to pursue a cautious loan growth strategy in 2021, we have strategically maintained strong capital adequacy and liquidity ratios at 23.9% and 43.9% respectively, ensuring adequate buffer to withstand impending shocks and good headroom for growth and the Bank will sustain this growth momentum, to ensure we consistently deliver sustainable value to our valued stakeholders,” the GCFO explained.
United Bank for Africa Plc is a leading Pan-African financial institution, offering banking services to more than twenty-one million customers, across over 1,000 business offices and customer touch points, in 20 African countries.
