UBA’s Total Asset Rise By 4.1% In 2022 Q1

United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc has released its unaudited results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2022, recording impressive growth across its income lines.

The bank’s result which was released to the Nigerian Stock Exchange on Tuesday showed that gross earnings rose by 18.3 per cent from N155.4 billion in 2021 to N183.9 billion; while operating income which stood at N106.6 billion as of March 2021, grew by 18 per cent to N125.9 billion in the year under consideration.

The results revealed that the bank’s total assets also rose by 4.1 per cent to N8.9 trillion in the period under review, compared to N8.5 trillion recorded at the end of the 2021 financial year; while shareholders’ funds grew by 2.6 per cent to N825.7bn from N804.8 billion in the same period.

Leveraging growth in both interest and non-interest income, the bank’s profit before tax rose to N44.5 billion as of March 2022, up from N40.6 billion a year earlier, while profit after tax stood at N41.5 billion. As always, UBA sustained its strong profitability recording an annualised 20.4 per cent Return on Average Equity (RoAE).

UBA’s Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Mr Kennedy Uzoka, explained that despite the myriad of economic challenges on the global front which shaped the first three months of the year, the bank’s business model continued to show resilience.

These challenges among others, he noted include the ongoing crisis between Russia and Ukraine that has resulted in a huge supply shock, pushing up commodity prices; and the hike in the interest rates in most advanced countries aimed at tackling spiralling inflation, sparking capital flow reversal from emerging and frontier markets.

“Notwithstanding these developments, we were able to leverage gains from our large customer base and vast geographical spread to bolster earnings. We recorded double-digit growth of 18 per cent in our gross earnings to N183.9 billion, with our Nigerian operation raking in 65 per cent of the revenue while our operations in other countries accounted for the remainder, showing the diversity in our operations,” Uzoka said.

The GMD pointed out that amid the “Great Resignation” wave that has seen a record number of employees across the globe quit their jobs, disrupting the performance of many businesses, UBA, in the last quarter of 2021, thoughtfully reviewed upwards, the salaries of its staff as part of broad measures to retain talents, adding, “We believe our staff is part of our success story with their welfare as a top priority