UBA Sets Target of 15% Total Deposit Market Share

FOREMOST pan-African bank, United Bank for Africa Plc (UBA)  has set a strategic goal of being a leading bank that has more than 15 percent of the total deposit market share and being among the top three most profitable banks in Nigeria.

In this regard, the lender plans to make UBA a bank of choice in Northern Nigeria and to have a UBA account holder in every nuclear family in Nigeria.

“That is why leveraging on digital technology to drive financial inclusion remains paramount in our hearts, given the low level of financial literacy in Northern Nigeria,” Emem Usoro, UBA’s Executive Director, Nigerian North Bank, disclosed an interview.

According to her, given the global economic impact of the Russia-Ukraine war on Nigerian and African economies, UBA, in February 2022,  had put in place  a robust risk management frameworks to adapt to any emerging risk in all its countries of operations, before the advent of the war.

She added that the challenges of food security, supply chain disruptions, increase in fertiliser costs, increase in the cost of diesel and aviation fuel, among others, occasioned by the Russia-Ukraine war did not come to the bank  as a surprise.

The war, according to her, has provided a greater opportunity for UBA to positively impact the communities where it has business operations in northern Nigeria; rather than the focus on continued growth and profit which happened as a natural consequence of impacting business community positively.

Her words: “All we did was to review the sectors and customer segments that would be severely affected by the war and to activate the proactive measures we had in place, including but not limited to re-evaluation of the capacity of borrowing customers in affected sectors to repay as at and when due, noting the variation of repayment terms as necessary.

“There was reduction in banking costs for some affected customer segments; aggressive financial inclusion drive to increase the number of the banked population, especially in rural communities in the North; active participation in special intervention schemes of the Central Bank of Nigeria (e.g. Anchor Borrowers Scheme, Commercial Agriculture Credit Scheme (CACS)) aimed at increasing local food production, boosting the nation’s self-sufficiency and decreasing hunger in the land; greater partnerships with donor and multilateral agencies for the execution of various intervention programmes like the World Food Programmes in states like Borno, Yobe, Gombe, Bauchi, Adamawa, Zamfara, Sokoto, Katsina, Kano and Abuja, where cash disbursements and fund transfers were made to hundreds of beneficiaries in excess of N12 billion.”

Other initiatives, according to Usoro, include the N350million UN Women programme and the $538 million Federal Ministry of Agriculture Special Agro Industrial Processing Zones Programme, just to mention a few.

Emem Usoro boasts over 20 years’ banking experience spanning Customer Service, Retail, Commercial, Corporate Banking and Public Sector, covering all the regions in the country.

Before now, the astute banker, who joined UBA in 2011, has worn several hats. She was the Directorate Head, Abuja and North Central Bank and was also the Regional Director, Lagos Island region in charge of 32 branches in the Apapa and Lagos Island region, where she was responsible for developing, planning and implementing strategies to grow and turn around ailing branches, amongst other activities.

She has a strong track record of winning and executing high-powered transactions.

A Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN) with strong capabilities in business development, financial and business advisory, strategic planning and execution, Emem holds a B.Sc. degree in Biochemistry and an MBA degree from the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife and is also an alumnus of Lagos Business School and Harvard Business School.

In line with United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the aforementioned partnerships with UBA helped to reduce poverty and hunger, while improving the good health and well-being of the people of Northern Nigeria, and consequently, customers had more disposable income to save and invest with the bank.

In the face of rising inflation and high cost of Premium Motor Spirit, the Executive Director assured that as a responsible corporate citizen, UBA is prepared to collaborate with the government, private sector entities, and other stakeholders to overcome these challenges.

For instance, “We can leverage our financial expertise to support infrastructure development and facilitate the transition to clean energy,” she stated.

The Executive Director noted that the bank’s branch network is very optimal, stressing that management and staff would do more to leverage on existing branch network, digital technology and partnerships with Fintechs to reach the unbanked and underbanked for the purpose of financial inclusion and access to credit.

UBA has deployed 610 Agency Banking partners in the North, who have reached over 1.5 million underbanked individuals, using e-channels such as Agency Banking, POS & Mobile Money in rural areas.

“Furthermore, we have strategically deployed over 200 offline BVN devices, which currently process over 400 BVN numbers monthly. “This in turn is used to open Tier 3 bank accounts to carry out transactions. However, we will not shy away from opening more branches in strategic areas whenever the opportunity presents itself and given favourable market forecasts,” she stated.

Financial Literacy she believes, remains the most single effective solution for boosting financial inclusion levels in Northern Nigeria.

As of 2019, the literacy level in the North was 34percent, compared to 67percent in the South, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

Furthermore, Northern Nigeria is reported to have 16.34million unbanked population, which represents 43percent of its population.

Usoro enjoins the government at all levels (Federal, State and Local) to declare a state of emergency on the general low level of literacy in Northern Nigeria due to its ripple effects on the endemic insecurity, banditry, gross poverty and other vices in Northern Nigeria.

“As a responsible corporate citizen, UBA has contributed significantly to the improvement of financial literacy in Northern Nigeria as a way of boosting financial inclusion through,” she emphasised.