Madam Abiola Bawuah, the MD/CEO of the United Bank for Africa (Ghana) has once again been applauded in the industry. This time with the award of the Finance Personality of the Year, at the just ended Ghana Accountancy and Finance Awards.

When Mrs Bawuah took over the reins at UBA Ghana in 2013 she was faced with developing programmes and strategies that would enable the bank meet up with the Bank of Ghana’s (BoG’s) second round of recapitalization which commenced that year (2013).

A few years on, her impact has been quite evident. In 2016, UBA Ghana Limited announced its unaudited financial results, showing a remarkable 134 percent growth year-on-year in profit before tax, the Bank also recorded significant positive performances in other headline numbers, with a 114 percent growth in Gross Earnings, and 68 percent growth in Customer Deposits.

This resulted in the bank being adjudged the “Best Bank – Product Innovation and Services” and first runner-up for the Best Financial Performance at the 2017 Ghana Banking Awards (GBA).

The CIMG Marketing Woman of the Year, when receiving the award thanked the organisers for the great recognition: “Tonight; allow me a moment to dedicate this award to all hardworking Ghanaians, to my board, family, staff, customers, my Regional CEO, Mr. Oliver Alawuba and the Group Managing Director, Mr. Kennedy Uzoka for their great support and direction so far. I would also like to immeasurably thank the Group Chairman of UBA Plc, Mr. Tony Elumelu for his inspiring leadership and entrepreneurial drive”.

“I would like to challenge everyone here to keep up with the good job. It is through hard work that we can collectively build this country. Through hard work we would make history and challenge the future generation to even do better”. She added.

United Bank for Africa Plc is a leading pan-African financial services group, with presence in 19 African countries, as well as the United Kingdom, the United States of America and France.

UBA was incorporated in Nigeria as a limited liability company after taking over the assets of the British and French Bank Limited who had been operating in Nigeria since 1949.

The United Bank for Africa merged with Standard Trust Bank in 2005 and from a single country operation founded in 1949 in Nigeria - Africa's largest economy - UBA has become one of the leading providers of banking and other financial services on the African continent.

The Bank provides services to over14 million customers globally, through one of the most diverse service channels in sub-Saharan Africa, with over 1,000 branches and customer touch points and robust online and mobile banking platforms.