United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc, Africa’s Global Bank, has issued its unaudited results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2023, revealing outstanding growth across all of its key income streams.
The bank’s results, which were released to the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) on Thursday, April 13, 2023, showed that gross earnings increased by 47.5 percent from 183.9 billion to 271.2 billion; while interest income, which stood at 125.9 billion in March 2022, increased by 53.4% to 191.9 billion in the quarter under consideration.
The findings also indicated that Operational Income increased by 39.6 percent to 175.7 billion, up from 125.9 billion in the similar quarter of 2022.
Continuing its sterling performance in its recently reported 2022 year-end financials, UBA saw its Profit Before Tax (PBT) rise by 38.2 percent to 61.4 billion in Q1 2023, up from 44.5 billion in Q1 2022. Similarly, its profit after tax (PAT) increased by 29.1%, from 41.5 billion to 53.6 billion.
Mr. Oliver Alawuba, UBA’s Group Managing Director/ Chief Executive Officer, commented on the result, saying that despite the high inflationary and challenging global environment, UBA was able to leverage the uptick in interest rates and improved digital offerings, in growing funded and non-funded income, adding that he is particularly excited about the growth in PBT, which has helped to drive increased returns to shareholders, with a 22.6% Return on Average Equity (ROA).
“We have continued to realize increased gains in our client acquisition and retention initiatives across our countries of operations, as evidenced by a 10.5% increase in customer deposits to 8.6 trillion from 7.8 trillion at the end of 2022FY.” This has enabled the Group to deliver higher loan growth and interest revenue, with loans to clients totaling 3.6 trillion, a 5% year-to-date (YTD) rise.
For 2023, we remain dedicated to enhancing the Group’s performance while strategically positioning our companies to capitalize on upcoming trends in their respective jurisdictions and throughout the world. We will continue to provide good benefits to our stakeholders.” Alawuba said.
Speaking about the performance, UBA’s Executive Director, Finance and Risk, Ugo Nwaghodoh, stated that it demonstrates the group’s resilience and commitment to delivering value and enhancing the confidence of its customers, stakeholders, and the general public despite the competitive landscape and current global trend in the industry.
“The impressive performance of UBA Group in the first quarter of 2023 is based on its continuous improvement and growth in gross earnings and balance sheet size, with gross earnings increasing by 47.5% year on year to 271.2 billion and total assets increasing by 4.6% to 11.4 trillion from 10.9 trillion as of December 2022,” Nwaghodoh stated.
“The rise in gross earnings is due to increases in both interest income and non-interest revenue,” he said, “while growth in total asset is related to higher deposits owing to active deposit mobilization effort that resulted in a 10.5% growth in customer deposit in the first quarter.”
United Bank for Africa Plc is a significant Pan-African financial institution, serving over thirty million clients through over 1,000 corporate offices and consumer contact points in 24 countries and four continents.
UBA connects individuals and companies across Africa with retail, commercial and corporate banking, innovative cross-border payments and remittances, trade financing, and auxiliary financial services.
