UBA Sierra Leone 2020 Financial Year Records Sterling Performance

By Amin Kef Sesay

• 71% Growth in Total Assets to Le1.32 trillion
• 65% Growth in PBT (Profit Before Tax) to Le123.7 billion
• 54% Growth in Shareholders Funds (Equity) to Le264.13 billion

UBA Sierra Leone recently received Bank of Sierra Leone (BSL) “No Objection” approval to publish its Year 2020 Audited Financial Statement which was earlier approved by its Board of Directors on the 17^th of March 2021.

In a note of appreciation to all staff of the bank, the Managing Director/CEO, Usman Isiaka noted that the bank recorded an impressive performance in the financial year with significant improvements across most parameters amidst the challenging 2020 Calendar year characterised by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Specifically, UBA closed the year 2020 with a balance sheet size of Le1.32 Trillion a growth of Le544.7 Billion representing a 71% increase compared to Le771.5 Billion in 2019.

This growth was largely driven by growth in deposits from customers. Despite the challenging market situation, the bank recorded growth of 67% in customer deposits to close at Le787.4 Billion at the end of the year compared to Le 472.5 billion in 2019 by leveraging on its digital prowess to provide 24/7 service to its customers via electronic channels to defy the COVID- 19 constraints.

The bank recorded a remarkable profit before tax of Le123.7 billion and profit after tax of Le92.8 billion representing impressive year-on-year growth of 65% and 81% respectively. The 2020 profit after tax translates to a 42.6% post-tax return on average equity and 8.9% return on total assets.

Gross earnings increased by 49% for the year ended 2020 accounting for the year-on-year increase in net interest income by 63% from Le 86.9 billion to Le141.9 billion. The bank also leveraged on its transaction banking channels, digital banking products, trade and foreign exchange offerings to grow non-interest income to 35% of gross earnings. We remain optimistic that our investments in alternative channels will continue to support the growth of our non-interest income lines to continually increase our gross earnings in the medium term.

The bank’s operating expenses increased by 40% in 2020 following the 27% rise recorded in 2019 due to increase in our operations.  However, it is also pleasing that our cost-to-income ratio, one of our crucial key performance indicators, further improved to 33.8% from 37.4% in 2019. We expect this to be sustained in the coming years as we leverage on the increasing digitalisation and process improvement initiatives of the bank.

UBA Sierra Leone remains very liquid and adequately capitalized, with capital adequacy ratio of 112.7% (2019: 112.0) which is well above the regulatory minimum. Our capital buffer remains strong to support our business growth and branch expansion plan, particularly as we are also leveraging internally generated capital by way of prudent and pragmatic earnings retention with Zero Dividend payment over the years.

We want to use this opportunity to thank our esteemed customers for their loyalty and continuous patronage that contributed significantly to this sterling performance and the Board for their unceasing support that is a source of encouragement to all staff and management of the bank in our journey towards making UBA Sierra Leone the undisputable leading and dominant financial service institution in the country.

UBA Sierra Leone is a subsidiary of UBA Plc, a leading Pan-African financial institution headquartered in Nigeria, offering banking services to more than twenty-five million customers, across over 1,000 business offices and customer touch points, in 20 African countries. With presence in the United States of America, the United Kingdom and France, UBA is connecting people and businesses across Africa through retail; commercial and corporate banking; innovative cross-border payments and remittances; trade finance and ancillary banking services.  Website: www.ubasierraleone.com.