United Bank for Africa

United Bank for Africa Plc is a multinational pan-African financial services group headquartered in Lagos Island, Lagos and known as Africa’s Global Bank. It has subsidiaries in 20 African countries and offices in London, Paris and New York. In December 2021, UBA received its banking license to commence operations in the UAE. It is listed as commercial bank by the Central Bank of Nigeria. The shares of stock of the group are listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange, where they trade under the symbol: UBA. The Group Chairman of the bank is Tony Elumelu and the GMD/CEO is Oliver Alawuba.

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Current executives

The table below shows the current Group Board of United Bank for Africa:

S/N	Name of executive	Title/designation
1	Tony O. Elumelu, C.F.R.	Chairman
2	Oliver Alawuba	Group Managing Director/CEO
3	Muyiwa Akinyemi	Deputy Managing Director
4	Abiola Bawuah	Executive Director, CEO Africa
5	Alex Alozie	Executive Director, North Bank
6	Ugochukwu Nwagodoh	Executive Director, Finance and Risk Management
7	Sola Yomi-Ajayi	Executive Director, Treasury & International Banking
8	Isaac Olukayode Fasola	Non-Executive Director
9	Owanari Duke	Non-Executive Director
10	Erelu Angela Adebayo	Non-Executive Director
11	Alhaji Abdulqadir Jeli Bello	Non-Executive Director
12	Angela Aneke	Non-Executive Director
13	Aisha Hassan Baba, OON	Non-Executive Director
14	Caroline Anyanwu	Non-Executive Director

Overview

United Bank For Africa is a large financial services group in Nigeria and on the African continent. As of September 2024, the group's financial assets were valued at ₦31.801 trillion, with shareholders' equity of ₦3.585 trillion. At that time the group employed in excess of 25,000 staff worldwide and its customer base exceeded 45 million accounts. The group maintains subsidiaries in Nigeria, Ghana, Benin, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Chad, Cameroon, Kenya, Gabon, Tanzania, Zambia, Uganda, Liberia, Sierra-Leone, Mozambique, Senegal, DR Congo, Congo Brazzaville, Mali, the United States of America, the United Kingdom, France, and United Arab Emirates. In November 2024, with worldwide staff numbering in excess of 25,000, the group opened full banking operations in France. At that time its global customer base exceeded 45 million accounts.

History

The British and French Bank Limited commenced business in Nigeria in 1948. BFB was a subsidiary of Banque nationale pour le commerce et l'industrie in Paris, which transformed its London branch into BFB as a separate subsidiary. Banque Nationale de Credit and two British investment firms, S.G. Warburg and Company and Robert Benson and Company, held shares in BFB.
Following Nigeria's independence from Britain, UBA was incorporated on 23 February 1961 to take over the business of BFB.
In 1970, UBA listed its shares on the Nigerian Stock Exchange and became the first Nigerian Bank to undertake an Initial Public Offering.
Today's UBA emerged from the merger of the dynamic and fast-growing Standard Trust Bank, incorporated in 1990, and UBA, one of the biggest and oldest banks in Nigeria. The merger was consummated on 1 August 2005, and was one of the largest mergers completed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange.
Following the merger, UBA further expanded its brand through acquiring Continental Trust Bank that same year. In 2006, UBA acquired Trade Bank, which was under liquidation by the Central Bank of Nigeria at the time.
UBA had another successful combined public offering rights issue in 2007 and made further acquisitions of three liquidated banks: City Express Bank, Metropolitan Bank, and African Express Bank. UBA also acquired Afrinvest UK, rebranding it UBA Capital, UK. The quest to build a strong domestic and African brand intensified in 2008 when UBA made further acquisitions of two liquidated banks: Gulf Bank and Liberty Bank.
UBA has a broad footprint across Africa and the world. It maintains subsidiaries in the following countries*, listed in the order of their commencement of banking operations:

Commencement of Banking Operations	Countries
1948	Nigeria
1984	United States
2005	Ghana
2007	Cameroon
2008	Burkina Faso, Chad, Côte d'Ivoire, Liberia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Uganda
2009	Gabon, Kenya, Tanzania
2010	Guinea, Mozambique, Zambia
2011	Congo Brazzaville, Democratic Republic of the Congo
2012	Benin
2018	United Kingdom
2019	Mali
2022	Dubai

''*UBA maintains a representative office in Paris, France.''

Subsidiaries

The table below illustrates the locations and Group shareholding in the subsidiary banks of the UBA Group Plc.

Rank	Country	Subsidiary	Shareholding
1	United States	UBA America	100
2	United Kingdom	UBA United Kingdom Limited	100
3	France	UBA France S.A.	100
4	Nigeria	UBA Nigeria Limited	100
5	Benin	UBA Benin	84
6	Burkina Faso	UBA Burkina Faso	64
7	Cameroon	UBA Cameroon S.A.	100
8	Chad	UBA Chad S.A	89
9	Republic of the Congo	UBA Congo Brazzaville	100
10	Democratic Republic of the Congo	UBA Congo DRC	100
11	Ivory Coast	UBA Côte d'Ivoire	100
12	Gabon	UBA Gabon S.A.	100
91	-	-	-
14	Republic of Guinea	UBA Guinea Conakry S.A.	100
15	Kenya	UBA Kenya Limited	81
16	Liberia	UBA Liberia Limited	100
17	Mali	UBA Mali	100
18	Mozambique	UBA Mozambique	96
19	Senegal	UBA Senegal S.A.	86
20	Sierra Leone	UBA Sierra Leone Limited	100
21	Tanzania	UBA Tanzania	82
22	Uganda	UBA Uganda Limited	69
23	Zambia	UBA Zambia Limited	100
24	United Arab Emirates	United Bank for Africa plc	100

Awards

Winner, Best Regional Bank in West Africa for the year 2024 by the African Bank Awards.
Bank of the Year Africa in 2023 at The Bankers Awards 2023, by The Banker Magazine – a publication of Financial Times of London.
It won the World’s Best Frontier Markets Bank in 2024 by Global Finance.