United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc has announced its audited results for the full year ended December 31, 2021, reporting impressive performance in key financial metrics.
The 2021 financial result filed by the bank at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on March 4, 2022, showed that gross earnings rose significantly to N660.2 billion representing an increase of 7 percent compared to N616.8 billion recorded at the end of the 2020 financial year.
Total assets grew by 11 percent to N8.5 trillion in the year under review, up from N7.7 trillion in 2020, thus marking the first time the bank’s assets will cross the N8 trillion mark.
Despite the huge challenging business and slow economic recovery in most of its countries of operations, UBA’s profit before tax was impressive with a 20.3 percent growth to N153.1 billion, compared to N127.3 billion at the end of the 2020 financial year; while profit after tax rose grew by 8.7 percent to N118.7 billion in 2021, compared to N109.2 billion recorded the previous year.
Similarly, net loans grew by 7.7 percent growth to N2.8 trillion, while customer deposits rose by 12.2 percent to N6.4 trillion, compared to N5.7 trillion in the corresponding period of 2020, reflecting increased customer confidence, enhanced customer experience, successes from the ongoing business transformation programme and the deepening of its retail banking franchise
In the year under consideration, the bank’s operating income rose by 10% to N443 billion compared to N403 billion in the prior year, whereas operating expenses closed the period at N279 billion.
Consequently, as a way of rewarding shareholders, the bank proposed a final dividend of 80 kobo for every ordinary share of 50 kobo for the financial year ended December 31, 2021. The final dividend which is subject to the affirmation of the shareholders at its annual general meeting will bring the total dividend for the year to N1 as the bank had paid an interim dividend of 20kobo earlier in the year.
Commenting on the result, the Group managing director/CEO, Kennedy Uzoka, said, “The year 2021 can best be described as a year of global recovery; economies around the world began to witness early-stage recoveries, as supply chains recover from the devastating disruptions suffered in 2020.”
Mr Uzoka explained that the quality of UBA’s portfolio as well as the strength of the bank’s credit risk management frameworks and policies remain the bedrock of the positive results that the bank has been recording over the years.
UBA’s Group chief financial official, Ugo Nwaghodoh, who corroborated the GMD’s comments, said, once again, the bank has shown resilience.
“Through active and diligent assets and liabilities management, the bank was able to protect its net interest margin and achieved a downward moderation of cost of funds (CoF) by 70 basis points to 2.2% from 2.9% in the prior year,” he said.
