UBA Kenya profit up 185 per cent

United Bank Of Africa (UBA) Africa-East and Southern Africa,Chief Executive Officer Emeke Iweriebor during a press conference in Nairobi. [David Njaaga,Standard]

United Bank for Africa Kenyan unit (UBA-Kenya) has registered a 185 per cent growth in profit after tax for the period ending December 31, 2018, after the overcoming a challenging macroeconomic and business environment.

The lender’s profit after tax increased from Sh18.6 million to Sh53.1 million during the period.

A statement from the bank said its total asset base witnessed significant expansion, growing by 135 per cent - from Sh6.5 billion in 2017 to Sh15.3 billion in 2018.

This has impacted on the bank’s liquidity position positively, currently standing at 73.5 per cent as at December 2018 - due to on-boarding of new customers as well as an increase in the share of wallet size of existing customers.

“The bank delivered positive numbers, demonstrating that our growth strategy resonates well with our customers. We are confident of better performance in 2019,” said UBA East and Southern Africa Chief Executive Emeke Iweriebor.

“As a bank, we remain focused on our brand promise to our customers ‘excellent service delivered’ in line with this, we endeavour to provide our customer with innovative and convenient banking solutions.”

In 2018, UBA launched its Facebook chat banking service dubbed LEO, enabling customers to carry out banking transactions via Facebook Messenger.