United Bank for Africa Plc (UBA) will on Monday, February 4, 2019, open a new branch in Mali. Maimouna El Oumarany, a Spokeswoman for UBA’s Malian subsidiary, said the bank aims at expanding its footprint in a region where it already operates in a dozen countries.
“Mali is a large market with a low (bank) account penetration rate,” El Oumarany said, adding that “We’re hoping to do better than the 13 banks already established in the country.”
According to El Oumarany, UBA’s strategy in Mali, a landlocked country on the edge of the Sahara, was focused on digital products that clients could access from their smartphones.
Meanwhile, UBA’s announcement of a final dividend for the 2018 financial year is yet to be published.
In a notification to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), UBA said its Board of Directors has approved its financial statements and payment of dividend to shareholders, subject to the approval of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
“We shall provide the details of the results and dividend payments as well as related corporate actions to the Exchange upon the approval of the accounts by the CBN,” the bank said in the notification signed by Group Company Secretary, Bili Odum.
UBA’s performance
The bank’s Q3 2018 results show that interest income witnessed a 12.6% increased from N238 billion in 2017 to N268 billion. Profit after tax also increased by 1.14% from N60.9 billion in 2017 to N61.6 billion.
UBA traded its shares on the NSE floor as of Thursday, January 31, 2019, at N6.80.
UBA’s footprints
The United Bank for Africa, one of Nigeria’s largest banks with more 700 branches, has subsidiaries across Africa in countries such as Ghana and Ivory Coast in the west, Kenya and Uganda in the east and Mozambique and Zambia in the south.
The Nigeria’s Pan-African bank also has offices in London, Paris and New York. (Reporting by Tiemoko Diallo; Additional reporting by Juliette Jabkhiro in Dakar; Editing by Tim Cocks and Elaine Hardcastle).
