 | Issue: 2010/04 Date: 28 Jan 2010 |
United Bank for Africa (UBA) will continue pursuing ‘aggressive expansion’ in Africa in 2010, according to its new group chief executive designate, Phillips Oduoza.
Oduoza will succeed current UBA group chief executive Tony Elumelu on 1 August 2010 as part of a radical restructuring of the bank’s management team.
Lafferty Retail Banking News can also reveal that Angela Nwabuoku, CEO of UBA Global Consumer Bank, has announced her resignation. She is expected to leave UBA by August 2010 at the latest. A replacement for Nwabuoku has yet to be named.
A spokesman for UBA declined to comment on the reason for Nwabuoku’s resignation.
Elumelu will depart UBA in response to guidelines issued by the Central Bank of Nigeria in January 2010 that limit the tenure of bank CEOs to a maximum of ten years – inclusive of the years served in a pre-merger component bank.
UBA said that Oduoza will work in tandem with Elumelu during the interim period to ensure the transition is seamless.
As part of the internal reshuffle, Femi Olaloku has been appointed executive director and group chief operating officer for UBA. Kennedy Uzoka will become executive director for Nigeria South. Ifeatu Onejeme will become executive director with responsibility for the bank’s treasury, corporate and investment banking activities, as well as the group’s operations outside Africa.
Speaking to Lafferty Retail Banking News, Oduoza said he would strengthen the bank’s strategic plan in order to position UBA as a leader in Nigeria and the rest of the continent.
He explained that significantly improving UBA’s customer service delivery and leveraging technology to streamline the bank’s business processes would be among his priorities.
Oduoza’s remarks follow a period of turmoil in Nigeria’s retail banking sector. In August 2009, Nigeria’s central bank governor, Sanusi Lamido Aminu Sanusi, dismissed the managing directors and executive directors of five banks, including Afribank, Finbank and Intercontinental. He also promised a $2.64 billion bailout to save the country’s banking system from a systemic crisis.
Events accelerated in October 2009 when Sanusi bailed out four more banks and fired three executives, bringing the total pumped into the financial sector to $3.94 billion. Nigeria’s central bank is currently seeking to consolidate the country’s banking sector, leading to interest from South Africa’s FirstRand Group and Standard Bank.
UBA has also registered its interest in acquiring any of the banks bailed out by Nigeria’s central bank. Oduoza said: “To date, we are operating from 15 African countries and the plan is to have a presence in more countries before the end of 2010. Whilst pursuing our organic growth strategy, we are also open to any opportunistic acquisition that will significantly add to our shareholder value.”
Prior to his new appointment, Oduoza was deputy managing director at UBA, overseeing its operations in the southern half of Nigeria
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