Kennedy Uzoka: A banker with passion for making a difference

 

 

The recent multiple awards won by  the United Bank for Africa Plc and its Group Managing Director and CEO, Mr. Kennedy Uzoka by the highly authoritative and influential Banker Magazine were not happenstance but merited in several respects especially considering the inclement economic environment in which financial institutions and other private sector companies are contending with.

 

It is like stating the obvious that Nigeria is caught in a web of challenges that  include rising insecurity, dwindling purchasing power of the people engendered by the high rate of inflation and a depreciating Naira, erratic power supply and dilapidated public infrastructure with most of the major highways turning into death traps.

 

These problems also coincide with the current recovery efforts by the government, members of the organized private sector including industrialists, financial institutions and citizens following the devastating impacts of the global pandemic, the COVID-19 and its deadly variants.

 

It is against this backdrop that the recent 14 laurels clinched by the UBA Plc under its  indefatigable and focused CEO, his management team and dedicated employees should be considered.

 

Truly, to reaffirm its leadership position across Africa, the institution which prides itself as Africa’s Global Bank despite all odds, not only won the  prestigious African Bank of the Year 2021 (Best Bank in Nigeria) by The Banker Magazine, one of the leading global finance publications published by the Financial Times of London but its subsidiaries in Africa dominating proceedings and emerging top in 13 countries on the continent thus breaking the Magazine’s record.

 

UBA’s solid financial performance, its excellent service delivery to customers and its continuous role of facilitating rapid economic growth across the African continent under Mr. Tony Elumelu’s pace setting board, management and staff were offered as major reasons that led to the bank emerging top in 13 of its African subsidiaries and in Nigeria.

 

Therefore to savour in the victory were UBA Nigeria Plc, UBA Benin, UBA Burkina Faso, UBA Cameroon, UBA Chad, UBA Congo Brazzaville, UBA Cote D’Ivoire, UBA Gabon, UBA Guinea, UBA Liberia, UBA Senegal, UBA Sierra Leone and UBA Zambia that came victorious in their respective countries.

 

It is worth noting however, that the recent feat will not be a first for UBA under Uzoka.  For instance in 2020, six of the institution’s subsidiaries in Benin, Cote D’Ivoire, Chad, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Zambia were winners of the Best Bank award.

 

But this year, the UBA Group has set unassailable record following its exceptional wins as African Bank of the Year and Bank of the Year in 13 countries while the historic 14 awards make it the first time ever in the history of the almost 100 years of The Banker Magazine, that any banking group will be clinching as many as 14 wins in a single year.

 

Before that colorful Virtual award ceremony which was held on December 1st, Uzoka had clinched the ‘Finovator of the Year’ Award organised by the Finnovex West Africa Awards 2021, co-located with Finnovex West Africa Virtual Summit,  in recognition and appreciation of his effort and exceptional service provided in the field of financial services while the UBA brand was also named as winner, ‘Excellence in Digital Banking’ award at the same event.

 

Reacting, some financial experts were quick to point out that the  numerous  recognitions at the continental level were made possible by Uzoka’s passion for excellence, dynamism, innovative, hard work, intelligence as well as effectively combining the attributes of a successful banker and engineer particularly teamwork, creativity, logical thinking and attention to detail.

 

‘The fact that the awards came back to back and devoid of any manipulation in a country with over 20 commercial banks is a clear testament of Uzoka’s integrity and commitment to sustaining the Bank’s tradition of excellence in addition to breaking new grounds for the over 70-year-old financial institution’, enthused one of the analysts who craved for anonymity.

 

 

 

 

 

Similarly, justifying the string of awards, the Middle East and Africa Editor for The Banker Magazine, John Everington, explained at the event that a rigorous and highly analytical process is made annually to reach the decision for each Bank of the Year award while the institution’s reputation for independence, authority and integrity is thoroughly applied to each submission.

 

Continuing, he declared, “While several African banks impressed the judges this year, there was no doubt as to the worthiest recipient of the Bank of the Year for Africa – UBA Group – a clear winner across a wide range of criteria. UBA has performed impressively across its footprint with a strong financial performance across most of its markets.”

 

And Uzoka, who expressed delight over the recognition from The Banker noted, “Like I always say, at UBA, we must be doing something right. Winning 14 total awards in 13 subsidiaries and the Bank of the Year on the African continent is a big achievement.

 

“The recognitions come as a reassurance that we are on track in consolidating our leadership position in Africa, as we continue to create superior value for all our stakeholders. We have our millions of customers across the globe and our many thousands of staff to thank for this. They are the very reason why we keep winning’’.

 

Initiated by the Magazine Since1926, the Bank of the Year awards has been celebrating the best of global banking and is reputed as the industry standard for banking excellence even as this year’s  edition ‘highlights those institutions that have outshone their peers in terms of performance, strategic initiatives and response to the COVID-19 pandemic’.

 

By every parameter, Uzoka has proven to be the right man for the job as the CEO of the leading Pan-African financial institution that offers banking services to more than 25 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.

 

Similarly, the Bank 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’.

 

Advancing reasons for the institution’s successful narrative, the CEO pointed out that it has over the last few months, embarked on a mission to upgrade its banking channels and has invested in the latest technology to boost its digital offerings to customers, adding that this venture has been paying-off for the bank adding that,“Recognitions such as these show that we at UBA, are indeed doing something right, and I want to assure all our customers and stakeholders that we will continue to leverage our diversified business model and dedicated workforce to further strengthen our position as ‘Africa’s Global Bank’.

 

Recall that Uzoka had since assuming duties on September 1, 2016 been piloting the transformation agenda of the Bank, consolidating on the solid foundation inherited from his predecessors in office as well as leveraging on his expertise and depth of business experience which partly explains why the bank continues to thrive on the path of profitability with adequate returns to shareholders and ranked among the top five financial institutions in the country.

 

The top banker is a graduate of Mechanical Engineering from the University of Benin and holds a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from the University of Lagos. He also has a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting as well as a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Accountants of Nigeria.

 

He also owns several certificates from the Harvard Business School in the following: The Advanced Management Program, Leadership in Financial Institutions Europe, Strategic HR in Transforming Organisations Course including Competition and Strategy as well as an alumnus of such prestigious international institutions as International Institute of Management Development (IMD) in Lausanne, Switzerland; the London Business School, United Kingdom.

 

He was the best student in degree examinations in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Benin, Benin City (1987 session) with over two decades of experience in commercial banking, strategy and business transformation.

 

His past stewardship includes Deputy Managing Director, UBA Group, under Mr. Phillips Oduoza; worked as Executive Director and Director of Human Resources of the company in which role he supervised Human Capital, Corporate Communication, Company secretariat, Corporate Services, Legal services, UBA Academy, UBA Foundation and UBA Properties.

 

His robust profile also, comprises head, Strategy and Business Transformation of UBA Group and Regional Bank head, South Bank (covering the 17 states in Southern part of Nigeria). Before the merger of Standard Trust Bank, STB with UBA Plc in 2005, he was General Manager, North Bank covering all the 19 states in the Northern part of the country, the Federal Capital Territory as well as Chief Marketing Officer Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Chief Marketing Officer, Lagos and a Co-Managing Executive Officer with the responsibility to co-manage the entire bank.

 

It is against his towering credentials, solid background in the highly challenging and competitive financial sector and an unblemished career that many prospective bankers and the youth look up to him as not only as a role model but a leader who possesses the cognitive ability and experience for higher calling should the need arises.