By Francis Ajuonuma
Africa’s Global Bank, United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc, has released its audited financial results for the half year ended June 30, 2024. The results show impressive performance across some key financial indicators.
The audited financials released to the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) on Monday showed that the bank recorded double-digit growth in its gross earnings and operating incomes.
At the end of the first two quarters of the year, despite the tough global macroeconomic climate in Nigeria and the geopolitical environment challenges across major countries in Africa where the bank has subsidiaries, UBA recorded a 39.6 per cent increase in its gross earnings, which rose from N981.77bn in 2023 to N1.371trn in June 2024.
Interest income also increased by 134.3 percent to N1.003trn, up from N428.2bn recorded in June last year. Total assets went up by 37.2 percent from N20.6trn in December 2023 to close at N28.3trn. Customer deposits also leaped by 33.7 percent in the same period to close at N23.2trn, up from N17.3trn recorded at the end of 2023.
The results filed showed that profit before tax (PBT), which stood at N403bn in June 2023, closed the half-year at N402bn, while profit after tax (PAT) dropped slightly from N378bn to N316bn in the year under consideration. However, the banks’ shareholders’ funds increased by 47 per cent from N2.03trn in December 2023 to N2.99trn.
In line with the bank’s culture of paying both interim and final cash dividends, the Board of Directors of UBA Plc has declared an interim dividend of N2.00 per share for every ordinary share of N0.50 each held by its shareholders, representing a 300 per cent increase compared to the N0.50 declared in the similar period of 2023.
While commenting on the results, UBA’s Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Oliver Alawuba, underscored the bank’s commitment to consistently delivering value to its shareholders. He said, “UBA Group has continued to deliver strong double-digit growth in high-quality and sustainable banking revenue streams, driven by a focused growth in balance sheet, transaction, and digital banking businesses across geographies in line with our strategic goals.”
The GMD said, “The Group’s performance has been buoyed by consistent strong growth in all core and sustainable banking income lines. Our intermediation business showed strong growth with net interest income expanding by 143 per cent YoY to N675bn.”
On the plans for the rest of the year, Alawuba said, “As the Group intensifies its customer acquisition drive, we are making significant investments in technology, data analytics, product research, and innovation to enhance our value proposition and customer experience.”
The Executive Director of Finance and Risk, Ugo Nwaghodoh, expressed delight at the milestone the bank achieved in driving operational efficiency, as reflected in the cost-to-income ratio normalizing around the 50 percent range.
“Our cost optimization provides scope for further moderation, as we explore options towards a drastic reduction of our foreign currency denominated cost components, robotizing and automation of processes and application of artificial intelligence to our operations,” he stated.
He disclosed that the Group will focus on effectively managing the heightened credit, operational, cyber, and information security risks as it continues to conduct its business within the tenets of our moderate risk appetite in alignment with our sustainability goals.
