Mrs. Bawuah Becomes First Ghanaian To Head UBA

United Bank for Africa (UBA) has appointed Mrs. Abiola Bawuah as the new Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of the bank in Ghana. She is the first Ghanaian and first female to head the UBA Ghana.

Her appointment which took effect from the first of January this year follows the elevation of, Oliver Alawuba to the position of CEO West Africa of the bank.

Mrs. Bawuah joined United Bank for Africa (UBA) Ghana Limited on March 1, 2013 as the Deputy Managing Director.

Before her appointment with UBA, Mrs. Bawuah was an Executive Director at Zenith Bank.

She also worked at Standard Chartered Bank as a Business Financial Manager.

She holds a BSc in Actuarial Science, an EMBA (Finance) from University of Ghana, as well as numerous leadership qualifications from Harvard Business School.

Abiola Bawuah takes over from Mr Alawuba who was re-assigned to head the West Africa operations of the UBA group will oversee UBA's business in Ghana, Cote d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Guinea (Conakry), Liberia, Benin and Sierra Leone.

According to UBA it has gained a consummate banker and a key asset and 'we believe that with the experience she has garnered through her illustrious banking career, she would take UBA Ghana to higher levels.'

Mrs. Abiola Bawuah's three main goals for the Bank as she begins her tenure will be taking UBA Ghana to new heights, exceeding customer's expectations - with improved service delivery and a greater focus on UBA's Core values – (H.E.I.R - Humility, Empathy, Integrity and Resilience).

Mrs. Bawuah said: 'UBA Ghana in 2014 will be driven by a diligent focus on our core values and in so doing the achievement of the first and second goals will be effortless, as we all humble ourselves to serve with excellence, empathize with our customers, and work to make the bank the premier banking institution in Ghana whilst doing so with integrity and every effort we can muster.'

MRS BAWUAH'S TASKS
One of the key challenges of Mrs Bawuah will be on how to develop programmes and strategies to enable the bank meet the Bank of Ghana's (BoG's) second round of recapitalisation which commences this year.

Although, her predecessor recently welcomed the new GH¢120 million minimum recapitalisation announced by the central bank last year, Mrs Bawuah and her will have to compete with the over 28 banks.

Another area she is likely going to focus on is organic expansion of the UBA Ghana to cover the length and breadth of the West Africa second largest economy. She will also thrive to maintain the bank as the leader in innovative and electronic banking in the country.

ACHIEVEMENTS OF MR ALWUBA
Touching on the performance of the UBA Ghana, last year, Mr. Alawuba did not hesitate to say that the bank has done tremendously well in 2013. We started the year with service delivery which enables us to move with customers, he stressed.

Knowing very well that the face of banking is changing, the bank under the leadership of Mr. Alawuba continued to invest heavily on electronic banking that enables the bank to roll-out a number of e-products; including the highly-acclaimed card-less ATM withdrawal service that allows a third party to withdraw cash on its ATM without a card.

He was quick to add: 'This year, we will continue to introduce more products on customer banking, as we prepare to focus on the customer'.