United Bank for Africa Plc (UBA) is set to open a new branch in the ancient historic land of Mali, a string into North Africa.
Spokeswoman for the bank’s Mali subsidiary, Ms. Maimouna El Oumarany, 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. 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 smart phones.
The bank, one of Nigeria’s largest banks with more than 700 branches, has subsidiaries in about 20 countries across Africa.
The Africa’s global bank also has subsidiaries in London, Paris and New York.
Meanwhile, UBA, in a ground breaking corporate governance, last week became the first quoted company to turn in year-end audited results to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) with its 2018 full year accounts.
It also emerged the first in the history of the Stock Exchange to turn in full year ended December 31 audited results in January, less than one month after year end.
This was the same record it hit in 2017 when it came out first with announcement of a full year audited results on February 11, 2017 for the year ended December 31, 2016.
In a notification to the NSE, UBA said its board of directors had 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 the group company secretary, Bili Odum.
