• Thursday, March 28, 2024
businessday logo

BusinessDay

UBA wins Banker Magazine’s ‘African Bank of the Year’ award

Still on UBA’s strong double-digit growth in H1

The United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc has been named the African Bank of the year 2021 by the Banker Magazine, a leading global finance news publication published by the Financial Times of London.

The award organisers cite the bank’s strong financial performance, excellent service delivery and its role of facilitating economic growth across the African continent as reasons why it won. UBA was also named best bank in 12 of its African subsidiaries and in Nigeria.

The bank’s subsidiaries including UBA Nigeria Plc, UBA Benin, UBA Burkina Faso, UBA Cameroon, UBA Chad, UBA Congo Brazzaville, UBA Cote D’Ivoire, UBA Gabon, UBA Guinea, UBA Liberia, UBA Senegal, UBA Sierra Leone and UBA Zambia all came out top as the best banks in their respective countries.

In 2020, six of its subsidiaries in Benin, Cote D’Ivoire, Chad, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Zambia were winners of the Best Bank award. This year it won both African Bank of the Year and Bank of the year in 13 countries.

The total 14 awards make it the first time ever in the history of the almost 100 years of The banker, that any banking group will be clinching as many as 14 wins in a single year.

Read also: Julius Berger wins ITF’S “Best in Training Contribution 2021” Award

At the Virtual award ceremony which was held on December 1st 2021, the Middle East and Africa Editor for The Banker, John Everington, explained at the event that a rigorous and highly analytical process is made annually to reach the decision for each Bank of the Year award and the institution’s reputation for independence, authority and integrity is thoroughly applied to each submission.

“While several African banks impressed the judges this year, there was no doubt as to the worthiest recipient of the Bank of the Year for Africa – UBA Group – a clear winner across a wide range of criteria. UBA has performed impressively across its footprint with a strong financial performance across most of its markets,” Everington said.

Kennedy Uzoka, UBA’s Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, said, “Like I always say, at UBA, we must be doing something right. Winning 14 total awards in13 subsidiaries and the Bank of the Year on the African continent is a big achievement.’

Considered the Oscars of the African banking industry, the award for African Banker of the year was won last year by Access Bank’s Group CEO, Herbert Wigwe.

Since1926, the Bank of the Year awards has been celebrating the best of global banking and is regarded as the industry standard for banking excellence. The 2021 edition highlights those institutions that have outshone their peers in terms of performance, strategic initiatives and response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

United Bank for Africa Plc is a leading Pan-African financial institution, offering banking services to more than twenty-five million customers, across over 1,000 business offices and customer touch points, in 20 African countries.