-
Board declares 20k interim dividend
The board of directors of United Bank for Africa, UBA, has declared an interim dividend of 20 kobo per share for every ordinary share of 50 kobo each, held by its shareholders. This is inline with the bank’s culture of paying both interim and final cash dividends to shareholders, the banking group disclosed in its audited half year financial statement.
Kennedy Uzoka, the group managing director and CEO, made the disclosure while commenting on the bank’s half year performance where its profit before tax appreciated 33.4 percent year on year to N76.2 billion as at June 2021, up from the N57.1 billion recorded in the same period of 2020.
Also, the pan African financial institution reported a 36.3 percent rise in its profit after tax at N60.6 billion from the N44.4 billion recorded in the half year of 2020, while its gross earnings grew to N316 billion, a marginal five percent increase from the N300.6 billion recorded as at June 2020.
The impressive performance by the bank was achieved despite the challenging business and economic environment that emerged from the slow pace of activities following the global lockdown occasioned by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Uzoka, in his comments, said: “This has been a strong first half for us, as global economic recovery exceeded expectations, creating a positive rub-off on consumer and corporate confidence, savings and investment activities.
“We saw this positively impact our business, as we continued to leverage our key strategic levers – People, Process and Technology, and our Customer first philosophy, to revolutionise customer experience at UBA.
“Our first half 2021 (H1 2021) performance reflects our progressive efforts in building on the strong momentum that we started the year with. As a purpose-driven organisation, we remain resolute in our drive for sustained growth in customer acquisition, transaction volumes and balance sheet, as we consolidate our ‘Africa’s Global Bank’ market position in the years ahead, uplifting livelihoods across the continent,” Uzoka explained.
On the investment activities of the group, the ceo said the rest of Africa excluding Nigeria, where the pan African bank is in operation, yielded good results resulting from the business diversifications as its gross earnings and interest income grew 5.1 percent and 8.3 percent apiece in spite of the low yield environment in Nigeria. He also pointed out that UBA recognises the far-reaching effects of the pandemic on businesses globally, and remains focused on its promise to always provide our customers with the best banking experiences possible.
Also speaking, Ugo Nwaghodoh, group chief financial officer, on his part noted that the bank has the goal to achieve marked improvement in earnings quality while it maintains the positive operative leverage and a top-notch asset quality.
“The group recorded RoAE of 17.5 percent (from 15.1% in 2020H1) and a net-interest-margin of 5.8 percent (from 5.4% in H12020) as we played the volatile yield environment diligently for best return on our interest earning assets.
“Capital position remained strong, with a capital adequacy and liquidity ratios of 23.9 percent (22.4% in 2020H1) and 58.3 percent (58.2% in 2020H1) respectively. This is robust enough to support our growth ambitions,” he said.
The CFO further noted with optimism that the bank will continue to build resilience through its geographically diversified business model to support headline earnings growth for the group despite the largely uncertain and volatile operating environment, as well as marked improvement from coronavirus induced macroeconomic stress.
“We remain committed to our 18 percent and 15 percent respective RoAE and deposit growth guidance for FY 2021, as we continue to invest in growth opportunities across our geographies of operation, whilst managing capital and balance sheet prudently,” Nwaghodoh stated.
