Abiola Bawuah Reveals UBA’s Efforts At Making Africa Work
Abiola Bawuah, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of UBA Africa, has disclosed what the Africa Global Bank is doing to make Africa work.
Bawuah oversees the operations of the United Bank for Africa group in 19 African countries.
She disclosed that promoting trade that is devoid of issues that comes with accessing foreign exchange, collaborating with governments to develop the continent, and helping youth to grow their businesses as major focuses of her team at UBA Africa.
Mrs. Bawuah gave the insights during a media interactive session put together by the financial institution in commemoration of Africa Day 2023.
The event was held in Lagos.
Bawuah, who became the CEO of the group in January 2023, said the only way to eliminate challenges associated with foreign exchange is to promote trade across Africa in a manner that allows for the acceptance of one another’s currency.
With “Innovative Banking in Africa” as the subject of discuss, she said, “We have created so many platforms like the marketplace, and we have means of payment that we called Africash and partnering with other organizations to enhance trade. With this, we believe that Africans should trade with each other.
“I do not think there is a country in Africa that has dollar surplus. It is for us to promote trade across Africa and that is where UBA is coming in. We have put in so much for us to achieve it by ourselves. We are not going to be trading within ourselves by carrying cash. We are promoting technology, a means of payment to drive ease of transactions.”
She went further, “There are a number of products that we have at UBA to facilities these trades I am talking about”,
…anywhere UBA is operating, we collaborate with the government to ensure the country is developed. You will agree with me without the infrastructure in Africa, we go nowhere. We are collaborating with governments to put infrastructure in place…also make the private sector to be strong. We have also come to the realization that the government is not set up to create jobs and it is the private sector. We have collaborated with governments and created millions of jobs across Africa” she added.
The Chief Executive Officer who maintained that UBA subsidiaries under her watch are doing creditably well, and for instance, contributed about 50% to the group’s N853 billion earnings for 2022, listed road, power, and health as some of the sectors to have enjoyed interventions of the reputable banking brand.
She also us the opportunity to reveal how a strong partnership with Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) – founded in 2010 by extraordinary businessman, Tony Elumelu – has helped in uplifting young entrepreneurs across Africa.
