UBA unveils new structures… to meet global challenges

The Board of Directors of United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc has approved a major repositioning “to fully enable the bank realize the next phase of its strategic growth and global expansion”, a statement from the bank yesterday said.

The exercise followed a three-yearly strategic revalidation carried out by the bank, working with McKinsey, the global management-consulting firm, on its objective of becoming the leading financial services group in Africa by 2010.

UBA is currently West Africa's largest financial services group with assets in excess of US$14 billion.

The Group has now been structured into six Strategic Business Groups and three Strategic Support groups.  All nine Strategic groups report to the GMD/CEO.

The six Strategic Business Groups are: UBA Plc Nigeria-South, UBA Plc Nigeria-North, UBA Capital, UBA International, UBA Retail Financial Services and UBA Products & Segment Banking.

Nigeria, currently UBA's largest market, has been divided into the North and South clusters, each to be led by a Deputy Managing Director.

UBA Nigeria-North will provide banking services to customers within Northern Nigeria and deepen the bank's penetration in this region, while UBA Nigeria-South will provide similar services within the Southern region of Nigeria.

UBA Capital will provide investment banking, asset management, wealth management and merchant banking services with a scope of operations that covers Nigeria, the African continent and global financial centres where UBA Plc has presence. It is made up of nine subsidiary companies that are market leaders in different sub sectors of the Nigerian Capital Market.

Also, UBA International is to spearhead the bank's global expansion plans and continue to deepen the Group's market penetration of the African continent and the global banking arena.

UBA Retail Financial Services is a new service platform established to provide a wide range of financial services targeting non-bank customers across Africa, through non-branch channels such as direct sales agents, telemarketing, internet, consumer outlets, dealers, and microfinance banks.

Another group, UBA Global Products & Segment Banking is charged with the responsibility of actively developing market opportunities by designing and offering products, managing segments and service delivery channels, all aimed at serving the current and future needs of the Group's customers.