Posted by By AMECHI OGBONNA on
Nigerian banking industry has witnessed yet another ground-breaking result, as UBA Plc announced that its balance sheet size has hit the N1.05 trillion mark for the financial year ended September 30, 2006.
Nigerian banking industry has witnessed yet another ground-breaking result, as UBA Plc announced that its balance sheet size has hit the N1.05 trillion mark for the financial year ended September 30, 2006.
Details of the result, which is coming barely a year after UBA's historic merger experiment, showed that the Central Bank of Nigeria-inspired consolidation programme is yielding the desired dividend.
Accordingly, UBA's financial statement for the period under review showed that its gross earnings rose by 247 percent from N26.1 billion in 2005 to N 90.47 billion in 2006,while its total deposit base recorded a 278 percent growth to N776 billion, from N205 billion in 2005 financial year.
Despite the huge cost arising from manpower and IT integration, the bank posted N12.8 billion profit , in line with an earlier pledge. Its Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Tony Elumelu, had told stakeholders that profit after tax would not slip below the N12 billion mark at the end of the financial year.
In line with this sterling performance, the board of the bank is proposing a 100 kobo dividend per share, in addition to a scrip issue of one new share for every ten unit already held by shareholders.
The bank's phenomenal growth in balance sheet footing and deposit liability has proven the efficacy of its post merger retail growth strategies.
It has also validated UBA's innovative retail product development which combines effectively with its several consumer promotion and other diversification /growth strategies to launch it into the leadership spectrum of the Nigerian financial services market.
Its estimated 460 retail outlets coupled with its over 200 ATM located across the country could indeed make the bank the largest in West Africa, thus positioning it as the wise choice within reach.
In line with its ambitious programme to transform the bank into a global African financial institution delivering value to customers across the world, UBA has made a bold inroad into the African continent, with a subsidiary in Ghana, which also boasts of seven branches.
The bank has also initiated a number of world-class strategic alliances involving reputable brands like UBS AG of Switzerland, the world's leading asset management firm with a balance sheet size in excess of $2 trillion, to manage a portion of Nigeria's foreign reserves.