United Bank for Africa (UBA) Ghana Limited, a subsidiary of United Bank for Africa Plc, has recorded a strong financial performance and exceeded the Bank of Ghana’s (BoG’s) GH¢400 million minimum capital requirement, as indicated in its Q3 Financial Report.

Mrs. Abiola Bawuah, MD/CEO of UBA Ghana and Regional Chief Executive Officer of UBA West Africa 1, overseeing Ghana, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Liberia and Sierra Leone disclosed this in an interview in Accra.

She said that, “last year, the Bank of Ghana came out with a new requirement that all banks should meet a minimum paid-up capital of GH¢400 million by 31st December 2018. I am happy to announce that as of September 2018, UBA Ghana had exceeded the GH¢400 million capital requirement”.

In September 2017, the BoG announced the new minimum paid-up capital requirement, as part of a holistic financial sector reform plan to further develop, strengthen, and modernize the financial sector to support the government’s economic vision and transformational agenda.

The GH¢400 million minimum capital requirement which is a 233 percent increase over the previous GH¢120 million benchmark, according to the Central Bank is to create stronger banks that can drive the Country’s economic growth by undertaking big ticket transactions.



Strong 3rd quarter performance impacted on capital requirement

Speaking on the Bank’s financial performance for the period ended 30 September 2018, Mrs. Bawuah noted that the Bank once again posted strong profitability metrics by recording Profit before tax of GH¢172 million while Profit after tax was GH¢ 128 million, reflecting the resilience of the Bank’s profitability in the face of increasing competition. The Bank’s key profitability ratios for the period were also impressive with return on average equity of 29% and return on average assets of 5.3%, a testament to the efficiency of the Bank’s operations. She added that during the period, the Bank’s total assets increased by 19% to close at GH¢ 3.5 billion while the capital adequacy ratio of 30% was also well above the regulatory requirement.

She further stated that the Bank would continue to grow its balance sheet in an efficient manner, with renewed focus on mobilizing low cost stable deposits by leveraging its digital channels.

After meeting the minimum capital requirement what next?

When asked after meeting the capital requirement what is next for the Bank, Mrs. Bawuah stated: “Once the capital requirement is taken care of, we are focused on bringing value to our customers and staff. As a customer centric bank, we are focused on taking banking to our valued customers through innovative technology, our next technological approach will take Ghana at a storm.
We are ready to take more facilities. We can consummate more and bigger transactions, so, we expect that next year by this time, our performance financially should be fantastic, fantastic in our tailor made solutions for customers, continue to create better working condition for staff and giving back to society through CSR activities such as Read Africa and National Essay competition which is changing lives through education”.

More branches coming

With 28 fully networked branches spread across Accra, Tema, Kumasi, Takoradi, Tarkwa, Tamale, and Aflao, all in the Greater Accra, Ashanti, Western, Northern, and Volta regions, the UBA (RCEO) of West Africa 1, revealed that plans were afoot to open more branches in the remaining regions of the country.

Mrs. Bawuah explained: “We are growing rapidly and coming to a region near you. The coming year will have UBA Ghana expand steadily into to various regions of Ghana. But for now, I can assure Ghanaians that we have a plan to be in all the 10 regions”.

Incorporated in December 2004, UBA Ghana became the first bank to be licensed under the Banking Act 2004 (Act 673), since then; the bank has become synonymous with cutting-edge digital services as well as customer-centric products to meet its numerous customer needs in the country.