…says to workforce, ‘we see you wherever you are’
It was a moment of excitement at the head office of the United Bank for Africa (UBA) on Thursday, September 20, 24 as the management and staff of the bank filed out to be recognised as being part of the bank’s overall success story.
The event was the unveiling of UBA Time Capsule and Tribe Photo Wall, a part of the year-long activities to celebrate 75th anniversary of UBA.
The occasion also afforded the management of the bank the opportunity to celebrate the founders and customers of UBA.
Speaking directly to members of staff, Oliver Alawuba, group managing director/chief executive officer, UBA, said: “There is no UBA without you. Wherever you are, we see you and we know that you count and that’s why we have gathered all the pictures to celebrate you because we are proud of you all for your contributions and all the sacrifices you have made for UBA. Today, we want to tell you by this occasion that you are part of UBA and you will remain part of UBA.”
Tracing the journey of UBA since inception, he recalled that “from the beginning of UBA from just ab small location behind us, UBA has become a global financial institution.”
Alawuba told his colleagues: “We are so proud what UBA has achieved in the last 75 years. We want to use this occasion to show appreciation and to be grateful to all those who have worked with UBA from the founders of UBA. I want to thank specially and humbly, the Group Chairman, Tony Elumelu and all the Board members for the vision; for leading UBA to a great institution that we have today. We are grateful to all the executive directors, senior executives, board members in the subsidiaries, managers, branch managers, staff wherever they are, they count a lot and we are celebrating them all.”
The CEO also paid glowing tribute to “all the customers of UBA,” saying “without them. We would not be here today.”
According to him, “There are customers who have been with UBA for 50 years and without them, we would not be celebrating. We thank them specially.”
We aim to grow balance sheet to $20trn in next 75 years – Alawuba, GMD UBA
May we know some significant achievements during the period being marked?
This bank has been on for 75 years now with excellence and stability. We have been able to grow the business; grow customer base up to 40 million today; we are still growing. We have been able to touch so many lives across 24 countries. UBA is growing wealth. UBA is changing lives and building a lot of confidence, connecting Africa to the world and connecting the world to Africa. We are improving payment system across businesses across several continents across 24 countries. UBA is growing over 1000 branches across over 2000 ATMs, over 500,000 PoS. This bank has the future of Africa in mind. This bank will continue to reposition the continent and continue to reposition the people of Africa.
Why the gathering today?
What we are doing today is to open what we call UBA Tribe Wall, a compendium of all the photographs of every staff in UBA. We want to mark them. We want them to mark today that they are in UBA; that we see them wherever they are; they are making contributions in their various offices; with various mandates, supporting all our customers, because there is no UBA without our staff. Our staff have been making tremendous contributions and sacrifices to UBA. We are marking them. Also, today, we are launching UBA Time Capsule. What we are trying to do is to show that we at UBA can tell our story. We started 1949 just behind us at Kakakawa Street (close to our present head office on Marina, Lagos). UBA has grown to be a bank of reckoning in many countries of the world and we want to show our history of where we started, where we are and where we are going.
Can you speak to your expectations in the next 75 years?
This bank UBA is driven by innovation; our staff are very, very innovative. Our customers have continued to support us because we have innovative products that bring convenience, security to their businesses and to their lifestyles. In the next 75 pears, you are still going to see UBA. Today, we are present in 24 countries. In the next 75 years, we are going to be present in at least, 100 countries. Today, we are almost 20 billion USDollars in balance sheet. In the next 75 years, UBA will be one of the top 10 banks in the whole world, because the future of the world is in Africa. The future of Africa is in UBA. UBA will be that bank in the next 75 years that will continue to connect payment systems across the world and dominate over 10 percent of transactions.
May we know how the bank hopes to realise the great dreams you have itemised?
We will continue to focus on our people., on our businesses, on customers. This bank has a primary and singular focus on customers. So, customers will continue to be the bedrock of what we do in UBA.
In terms of preservation and sustainability, how do you hope to collate some of the historical artifacts; are you planning to set up a library?
Already we have electronic library where all these artifacts are stored for future generations; I am talking about 75 years, and for you to do that, you have to electronically store theses artifacts; we have that and must sustain that in the next 100 years and beyond.
There is no gender inequality in UBA, purely professionalism – Akinrimisi
Morenike Akinrimisi, Group Head, Corporate Bank and global subject matter expert on Aviation Business, says every staff is given the opportunity to excel irrespective of gender.
Many work places are still having issue with gender balancing; can you speak to us on the situation in UBA?
First and foremost, in UBA you don’t see that gender inequality. There is no gender inequality in the membership of our Board of Directors; we have two executive directors that are women. There is one thing our Chairman, GMD and GDMD promote which is the fact that as a woman you must be the very best that you are, and that there is no limit to your attainment. We don’t see gender inequality or disparity in UBA, everybody is represented very well and we put in our very best. Over the years that I have been in UBA and my female colleagues, we have been given absolutely the same opportunity that has been given our male counterparts. So, we don’t see that inequality in UBA. We give our best in terms of professionalism.
We aim to be dominant across over 100 countries in next 75 years – Akinyemi, Group DMD
Oluwamuyiwa Akinyemi, Group deputy managing director speaks on the resilience of the bank and the role of technology in UBA’s success.
Kindly take us through how UBA has evolved through the Standard Trust to where you are now?
The evolution of UBA actually started before the merger. It started 75 years ago, that is why we are celebrating. The merger happened in 2005. We were the third largest brand then and came together with another brand to form the UBA; you can see that transformation in our logo from the colour of blue and yellow to red, the vibrancy and the focus of the new UBA.
What can you say has kept UBA strong all these years?
I think one of the greatest assets of the UBA is the people- the commitment of the people to achieve the vision that we have for UBA. Everybody, when we come to work, we are looking at how do we impact our society? How do we impact our community? How do we impact those that we serve across the 24 countries? So, our people are the most pivotal assets that we have, they have kept us, and sustained our growth and trajectory. That will also remain our most-priced asset in the next 75 years. We aim to be dominant across over 100 countries in the next 75 years and grow our balance sheet to 20 trillion dollars from what it is today.
Can you speak more on where you should expect UBA to be in the next 75 years?
In terms of innovation, we want to stay ahead. You will recollect that a few years back, we launched the first AI chart box in Africa; that’s going to be a major platform of our service to our customers. It is a conversational tool and we are going to leverage AI to do a lot more. We are going to see more of leveraging of technology in the next two, three to five years, not just to wait till next 75 years. We promise to serve our customers more across all platforms on the back of the technology we have already leveraged, and will continue to leverage. The future is very bright for UBA, and for all our customers.
