Business
UBA Business Series Set to Spotlight Africa’s New Generation of Female Leaders
Africa’s Global Bank, United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc, is set to host a special edition of its impactful quarterly UBA Business Series, which be specifically focused on celebrating and empowering the modern woman with the theme: “gen w – ‘The Evolved Woman’
The session, which is scheduled to hold on Thursday, March 12, 2026 from 11AM at UBA House, Lagos, will bring together an array of accomplished female leaders and professionals who will share insights, experiences and practical strategies for navigating ambition, leadership and growth in today’s dynamic environment.
The session will also be streamed live across all UBA digital platforms, and interested participants can register to attend virtually or in person via this link: on.ubagroup.com/tfig.
This edition of the Business Series aims to move the conversation around women intensely forward, highlighting a new generation of women who are not simply seeking opportunities but confidently creating them. The discussion will explore how women today are shaping industries, leading businesses, and redefining success on their own terms.
The event will feature an inspiring lineup of speakers, including entrepreneur and founder of ORÍKÌ Group, Joycee Awosika; media personality & entrepreneur, Tomike Adeoye; entrepreneur and founder of Fine Funky, Olufunke Davies; and award-winning Broadcaster, Ayo Mario-Ese. The conversation will be hosted by media personality and actor, Tobi Bakre.
Panelists’ will share their personal journeys and perspectives on navigating professional spaces, building resilient businesses, embracing authenticity and redefining leadership as women in a rapidly evolving global landscape.
Speaking ahead of the event, UBA’s Group Head, Marketing and Corporate Communications, Alero Ladipo, explained that the special edition of the Business Series reflects the bank’s firm commitment to supporting women for the critical roles they play in driving economic growth and innovation across Africa.
She said, “The modern African woman is evolving in remarkable ways. She is bold, visionary, and intentional about the spaces she occupies. Through this edition of the UBA Business Series, we want to celebrate women while also creating a platform where meaningful conversations around leadership, ambition and opportunity can take place.”
The quarterly UBA Business Series has become a key knowledge-sharing platform designed to equip entrepreneurs, professionals and business leaders with insights, tools and strategies needed to grow sustainable enterprises as well as navigate the evolving business landscape.
United Bank for Africa is one of the largest employers in the financial sector on the African continent, with 25,000 employees group-wide and serving over 45 million customers globally. Operating in twenty African countries, the United Kingdom, the United States of America, France and the United Arab Emirates, UBA provides retail, commercial and institutional banking services, leading financial inclusion and implementing cutting-edge technology.
Fidelity Bank Plc has reported a strong financial performance for the first quarter of 2026, with gross earnings rising by 37.9 per cent to N434.95 billion, driven by growth in its core banking operations.
The unaudited interim report and accounts for the three months ended March 31, 2026, released on the Nigerian Exchange, showed that the bank’s gross earnings increased from N315.42 billion recorded in the corresponding period of 2025.
Interest income grew significantly by 22.8 per cent to N314.48 billion in Q1 2026, compared with N256.10 billion in Q1 2025, reflecting expansion in the bank’s core business activities.
With net interest income standing at N180.97 billion, the bank posted a profit before tax of N92.48 billion for the period. Profit after tax settled at N74.47 billion, while earnings per share remained strong at N5.69.
The bank also recorded notable improvements across key balance sheet indicators. Total assets rose above the N11 trillion mark to N11.35 trillion as of March 2026, compared with N10.46 trillion recorded at the end of December 2025.
Customer deposits increased from N6.89 trillion to N7.38 trillion during the review period, while shareholders’ funds rose by 27.5 per cent from N1.09 trillion in December 2025 to N1.39 trillion by March 2026, supported by earnings growth.
The Q1 performance further strengthened the bank’s earnings outlook following the successful completion of its recapitalisation programme in 2025.
The bank had earlier posted strong full-year results for 2025, recording growth across major income lines and balance sheet metrics.
According to its audited financial statements, gross earnings rose by 45.6 per cent from N1.04 trillion in 2024 to N1.52 trillion in 2025. Interest and similar income increased from N803.1 billion to N1.11 trillion, while fees and commission income grew by 44.7 per cent to N113.4 billion.
Net profit after tax for the 2025 financial year stood at N242.4 billion.
Total assets expanded by 18.6 per cent to N10.46 trillion in 2025 from N8.82 trillion in 2024, while customer deposits increased by 16.1 per cent to N6.89 trillion.
Net loans and advances, however, declined slightly by 2.4 per cent to N4.28 trillion, which the bank attributed to repayments of matured obligations by customers.
The bank also strengthened its capital position in 2025, with eligible capital rising to N561 billion, above the N500 billion regulatory requirement for banks with international authorisation.
Capital Adequacy Ratio improved to 30.94 per cent in December 2025 from 23.47 per cent recorded in December 2024.
Commenting on the results, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Fidelity Bank Plc, Nneka Onyeali-Ikpe, said the Q1 2026 performance reflects the resilience and strength of the bank’s business model.
She stated that the successful recapitalisation exercise and the bank’s ongoing expansion had positioned Fidelity Bank for stronger growth and improved returns.
“We are on a stronger footing and confident that we will set new growth records that are reflective of our legacy and the future we are working on,” Onyeali-Ikpe said.
Africa’s Global Bank, United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc, has deepened its longstanding relationship with the academic community and reaffirmed its commitment to innovation, youth empowerment, and nation-building by commissioning the UBA Innovation Hub and Business Office at the University of Lagos (UNILAG).
The landmark facility was commissioned by the Group Chairman, UBA, Tony Elumelu, represented by Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Oliver Alawuba, supported by other senior executives of the bank and members of the university leadership, led by the Vice Chancellor of the University of Lagos.
The commissioning marks another defining chapter in the enduring relationship between UBA and one of Nigeria’s foremost institutions of higher learning. The project also reflects UBA’s historic connection with the University of Lagos and Nigeria’s education ecosystem.
UBA was the first bank to establish a campus branch in Nigeria in the 1960s, pioneering financial inclusion and institutional banking support within the nation’s higher education environment.
Adding a personal dimension to the occasion, UBA Group Chairman, Tony Elumelu, himself an alumnus of the University of Lagos, described the commissioning as both symbolic and strategic.
“Returning to my alma mater for this commissioning makes this moment particularly meaningful. Universities remain the birthplace of ideas, innovation, and future leadership. Through this investment, UBA is reaffirming its belief in young people and in the role institutions like the University of Lagos will continue to play in shaping Africa’s future.”
He added that UBA’s philosophy of empowering people and building institutions remains central to its growth agenda across Africa.
The Vice Chancellor, Professor Folasade Tolulope Ogunsola, who emphasised that Elumelu remains “a son of the university”, commended UBA for sustaining a relationship built on impact, innovation, and institutional support.
“The Group Chairman of UBA, Mr Tony Onyemaechi Elumelu, CFR, one of Africa’s most celebrated entrepreneurs and philanthropists, is, in the truest and most meaningful sense, a son of this University,” Ogunsola said.
Ogunsola continued, “The intellectual rigour, the ambition, and the broadness of vision that he would go on to demonstrate as he transformed a struggling bank into a pan-African institution of global stature, that fire was sharpened here.”
The newly commissioned four-floor complex has been designed as a shared platform that promotes collaboration between academia and industry. Under the arrangement, UBA will operate its dedicated Business Office within the facility, providing direct access to innovative banking services, financial advisory services, enterprise support, and engagement opportunities for students, faculty, and the wider university community. The remaining floors of the complex will serve broader institutional and developmental purposes for the University’s use.
Also speaking, UBA’s Group Managing Director/CEO, Oliver Alawuba, noted that the Innovation Hub and Business Office represent an intentional investment in talent, enterprise, and future economic transformation.
“UBA continues to create platforms that connect knowledge with opportunity. This facility will provide students and the university community access to ideas, networks, innovation support, and financial services that help unlock potential and prepare future leaders for a rapidly changing world,” he said.
In another major highlight of the event, the University of Lagos announced the renewal of UBA’s sponsorship and support for the Professorial Chair in Finance, further strengthening collaboration between academia and industry and advancing thought leadership, research, and professional excellence in financial studies.
Alawuba stressed that the UBA Professorial Chair remains the bank’s most enduring academic contribution.
“Our most enduring academic contribution remains the UBA Professorial Chair of Finance, established in January 1972 as the first-ever Finance Professorial Chair in a Nigerian university. It was designed to strengthen finance education, deepen banking research, and support thought leadership in Nigeria’s financial sector. I am pleased that the Executive Management of UBA has approved an additional ₦61.67 million to further strengthen the Endowment Fund for the Chair and sustain its work through the current professorship tenure.”
The commissioning of the UBA Innovation Hub and Business Office reinforces the bank’s broader mission of enabling sustainable development through strategic investments in education, entrepreneurship, technology, and human capital across Africa.
Africa’s Global Bank, United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc, has reaffirmed its commitment to strengthening diaspora engagement, advancing healthcare development in Nigeria through the introduction of its healthcare investment proposition to the Nigerian-American medical community at the 2026 ANPA Carolinas Symposium held in Charlotte, North Carolina.
The ANPA Carolinas Symposium, hosted annually by the South Carolina and North Carolina Chapters of the Association of Nigerian Physicians in the Americas (ANPA), convenes over 170 physicians and healthcare professionals for medical and scientific dialogue on issues impacting communities across North America, the Caribbean, and Africa, particularly among people of Nigerian descent.
Speaking at the event, UBA’s Head of Diaspora Banking, Anant Rao, made a compelling case for structured diaspora participation in Nigeria’s healthcare transformation, encouraging attendees to expand their contribution beyond remittances toward long-term institution-building.
“The financial infrastructure required to connect your success abroad to sustainable institutional impact at home has not been intentionally designed for diaspora healthcare investors until now,” Rao said.
During his presentation, Rao introduced the ANPA–UBA Diaspora Healthcare Investment Platform — a professionally managed investment vehicle designed to channel diaspora capital into specialist hospitals, diagnostic centres, telemedicine infrastructure, and medical training institutions across Nigeria.
“Every dollar invested delivers a dual return — creating value for investors while contributing meaningfully to Nigeria’s healthcare future. We now have the regulatory framework, banking infrastructure, governance structures, and institutional commitment to make this possible,” he added.
Under the proposed structure, UBA will serve as custodian and structuring bank, while United Capital Asset Management, one of Nigeria’s leading asset managers with over ₦1.2 trillion in assets under management, will act as fund manager.
As part of deepening engagement with the Nigerian-American medical community, Rao also proposed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between UBA and the two ANPA chapters. The proposed collaboration is anchored on six strategic pillars: preferred banking offerings for ANPA members; quarterly financial education sessions; the joint Healthcare Infrastructure Fund; a dedicated ANPA Wealth and Legacy Desk; access to group-rate family healthcare plans through Avon HMO; and a UBA co-matching contribution framework to support qualifying impact vehicles under the Pearl Endowment Fund.
The initiative represents a further expansion of UBA’s diaspora value proposition, which currently includes Non-Resident Nigerian (NRN) accounts in multiple currencies, fixed-income and dollar-denominated investment solutions through United Capital, elder-care trust solutions under the Homeland Anchor Care Trust programme in partnership with Avon HMO, and private wealth management offerings tailored to senior diaspora professionals.
The 2026 ANPA Carolinas Symposium marks another milestone in UBA’s strategic engagement with the diaspora community and reinforces the Bank’s long-held belief that diaspora capital can play a transformative role in accelerating healthcare and infrastructure development across Africa.
