The nomination of Mrs. Abiola Bawuah as the Chief Executive Officer, UBA Africa has been made public by the Board of Directors of the United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc, Africa’s Global Bank. Bawuah will supervise the Group’s operations outside of Nigeria on the African continent by joining the Group Board as an Executive Director.
In addition to having global offices in New York, London, Paris, and the UAE, the operates in 19 other African nations outside Nigeria.
Bawuah, a citizen of Ghana, is the organization’s first female CEO.
Her selection illustrates UBA’s dedication to diversity even further. There are currently eight female directors on the UBA Group Board.
Bawuah held the position of Regional CEO, West Africa prior to being hired, where she was in charge of the operations of the Group’s nine companies in Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Senegal, and Sierra Leone. She formerly served as CEO of UBA Ghana.
Tony Elumelu, Chairman of the Group Board, commented on the new appointment: “Abiola has contributed considerably to the expansion of UBA Africa for close to ten years. She brings a wealth of experience in commercial banking, and stakeholder engagement.”
“It also gives me great pleasure that with her appointment, the UBA Group Board has now become a majority female board.”
Additionally, the UBA Group disclosed the following executive positions:
UBA West Africa’s Regional CEO is now Chris Ofikulu. Ofikulu, a banker with more than 20 years of expertise in corporate, retail, and commercial banking.
Subject to local regulatory permissions, Uzoechina Molokwu would assume the position of Deputy Managing Director (DMD) of UBA Ghana. He has over 23 years of banking expertise and was previously the Executive Director, Business Development at UBA Côte d’Ivoire.
Managing Director/CEO UBA Liberia will be Ayokunle Olajubu, pending local regulatory approval. With thirty years of banking expertise in Nigeria and other African nations like Sierra Leone, Cote D’Ivoire, and the Gambia, he currently oversees compliance for all subsidiaries in Africa.
The appointment of Theresa Henshaw as CEO of UBA UK is pending clearance from local regulatory bodies. She joined the Group as ED, Business Development at UBA UK after serving as the DMD, Business Development, UBA America.
Subject to local regulatory permissions, Usman Isiaka, who is the CEO of UBA Sierra Leone, would serve as the deputy CEO of UBA America.
Former CEO of UBA UK Adeyemi Adeleke is now the group treasurer. Adeleke will be trying to capitalize on the Group’s presence in 24 countries both inside and outside of Africa in order to unlock the enormous value contained in its multijurisdictional balance sheet.
Along with the executive appointments, UBA also revealed that High Chief Samuel Oni, an independent non-executive Director, would leave the Board at the conclusion of his term. He began working for the UBA Group in January 2015 and spent eight years on its board.
The Group Chairman, Mr. Elumelu, thanked High Chief Oni for his dedication, leadership, and significant contributions to the UBA Group and sent him best wishes for all of his upcoming endeavors on behalf of the Board.
United Bank for Africa offers retail, commercial, and institutional banking services, leading financial inclusion, and the use of cutting-edge technology in twenty African nations in addition to the United Kingdom, United States of America, France, and United Arab Emirates. With 25,000 workers worldwide and over 37 million customers served globally, UBA is one of the top employers in the financial sector on the African continent.
