UBA commits to support, Advisory services for businesses
The United Bank for Africa has revealed its focus on Commerce for the development of the Nigerian economy as Well as the bank’s commitment to SMEs in Nigeria and across Africa.
The bank signed an agreement into the future to keep sponsoring the Lagos International Trade Fair in order to help SMEs thrive and advisory services to guide business owners.
According to the Deputy Managing Director, UBA, Muyiwa Akinyemi who spoke to newsmen on thursday at the just concluded Lagos International Trade Fair, ‘The Lagos Trade fair is perhaps the foremost trade Fair event in Africa and has been around for 135 years.’
He stated that UBA cannot but be present in such an extensive fair noting that the bank has been an elite sponsor to Lagos Chamber of Commerce (LCCI) for the past 10 years now.
The DMD expressed, ‘We have continued to not only pull our weight behind the fair, by consistently retaining headline sponsorship for this all-important event, but have also provided far reaching expert advice that empower SMEs to go ahead and become global champions as we have seen with many success stories of businesses that have participated in this fair at any point in time.
‘Also as a leader in African trade, we have identified this fair as a veritable avenue for both domestic and international exhibitors to promote their businesses through product launches, sales opportunities, and business-to-business meetings with government agencies while fostering international trade partnership deals across borders’, he added.
Meanwhile, The group head, retail, sales and services, United Bank for Africa, Praise Charles Ayewoh in a session with the Press last Friday at the Lagos International Trade Fair enumerated the bank’s focus on commerce for the development of the Nigerian economy.
Mr Ayewoh stated that In the area of IT the bank has increased its capacity and they have ensured to put their customers as priority, therefore it’s a customer’s first philosophy because without the customers they couldn’t have attained this level. ‘The bank’, he said, ‘that was regarded as an old people’s bank is now making waves showing we are for everybody, for the youths and those who want to grow.
He explained, ‘Commerce to our bank is key, we cannot survive without buying and selling. From time memorial in the days of barter to now when we have banks and we are moving to the stage where we won’t be having physical banks anymore but fintechs, special intelligence and all of such.
‘So, in cases where you have human needs of clothings, of food, luxury bills and everything you can imagine, you need to have an engine or a pedestal and that pedestal is the bank. UBA is playing assiduously in the area of SME and commercial loans for big outfits but at the grassroot level you have to stimulate businesses, you have to encourage little industries and businesses to grow. It is in this regard we had to partner with the Lagos International Trade Fair (LITF) as the headline sponsors for the past six years and we are growing stronger.
‘As I speak to you now’, he said, ‘we have already signed an agreement into the future to keep sponsoring them because we will like to see Nigerians thrive and for those that know what they are doing, they have been able to grow their outfits on this SME level to that level where they no longer need small supports. The kind of support they need are bigger loans , hence we are there to support them at any level.’
In respect to UBA’s presence in Africa, the group head explained that if you look at the antecedents that brought about UBA, it was a bank called Crystal Bank, then it became STB and the incubent Chairman of the bank was the then MD of STB.
He appraised the Chairman, UBA, Tony Elumelu for his resilience, passion for work and for him being a person who wants to invest in the youths of Africa and the continent at large. He said the Chairman wants Africa to be recognized all around the world. He explained, ‘We have had this vision years before now. and it started with the first bank we had outside Nigeria which was setted-up in Ghana. we saw there was a whole lot of potentials for us to leverage and add value to the lives of Africans. From Ghana we started moving gradually towards Africa. As we speak we are in twenty African countries, we are also in US, we are the only African bank licensed there.
The group head further enumerated the bank’s level of customer engagement. He said, ‘We have to mark every engagement we have with our customers, we have to keep doing this to keep track of our customers growth. Also, UBA offers advisory services to ensure her customers are taught how to fish.
In addition, Mr Ayewoh expressed that the bank has the SME business scheme across all the countries in Africa it is situated. Hence, he said, ‘whatever you see us doing through the partnership with the Lagos Chamber of Commerce, we are also replicating in all our branches in Africa.’
