Business
Bawuah: UBA has Assisted Govts Across Africa with Infrastructure and Trade Financing.
Bawuah: UBA has Assisted Govts Across Africa with Infrastructure and Trade Financing.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of UBA Africa, Mrs. Abiola Bawuah, disclosed yesterday that the pan-African financial institution has supported governments across countries in Africa where it operates in key infrastructure projects and trade financing and employed over 30,000 staff across the continent.
Bawuah said this in Lagos, during the UBA Africa Conversation 2023, with the theme “Innovating the Continent for Growth,” which echoed the Africa Union’s vision of innovation, technology, and the need to create opportunities on the continent.According to her, “We’ve supported governments all over Africa in serious infrastructure projects. I make sure that wherever UBA is operating, we collaborate with the government to ensure the country is developed.
You will agree with me that without the infrastructure in Africa, we have no way.”Also, across Africa, everybody is talking about manufacturing and adding value to the agriculture sector. Almost all of Africa’s economy is dominated by agriculture, which is 60 percent, and we have come to the realisation that adding value”If you fail to add value, you go nowhere. All the governments are talking about manufacturing, but you cannot have manufacturing without infrastructure and infrastructure without power.
“UBA is repacking them. We have also realised that the government is not set up to create jobs; it is the private sector. We have collaborated with governments and created millions of jobs across Africa.”There are numerous product facility programmes we have introduced for consumers, the corporate world, and SMEs, and we are supporting them across the continent.”
According to her, “It is only UBA that I know of that supports MSMEs without collateral once you are faithful and running your company very well. It is indeed a great vision for Africa.”
In support of the youths, she said, “Africa is a blessed continent with a youth population. I am told that almost 70 percent of most countries’ populations in Africa are youth. We are dreaming of how to support these youths, and that is how we are partnering with the Tony Elumelu Foundation on youth empowerment.”She expressed dissatisfaction over the low trade proportion on the continent, stressing that the financial institution was working on promoting trade across countries where UBA has subsidiaries.
According to her, “We have created so many platforms, we have means of payment that we called Africa, and we are partnering with other organizations to enhance trade. With this, we believe that Africans should trade with each other.
“I do not think there is a country in Africa that has a dollar surplus. It is for us to promote trade across Africa, and that is where UBA is coming in. We have put in so much for us to achieve it by ourselves. We are not going to be trading within ourselves by carrying cash. We are promoting technology as a means of payment to ease transactions.
“There are several products that we have at UBA to facilitate the trades I am talking about.”
