Africa’s Global Bank, United Bank for Africa (UBA), has pledged to continue to be at the forefront of empowering the creative industry across the continent.
The Group Deputy Managing Director, Muyiwa Akinyemi who said this noted that with the Bank’s visionary commitment towards nurturing and promoting talent, UBA continues to make significant investment in the creative sector, such as its lifestyle and entertainment channels, REDTV and REDRadio.
Muyiwa made this submission while presenting the keynote address at the opening ceremony of the Nigerian International Film and TV Summit (NIFSTV) 2023 in Lagos on Tuesday, where he explained that the bank’s strategic endeavours have proven to be transformative catalysts, propelling the creative sector’s growth and enabling Africa’s talents to shine brightly on the global stage.
He also shared his insights on the importance of empowering the next generation of creative entrepreneurs and elevating industry standards.
“For us at UBA; we pride ourselves as Africa’s global bank, which is why we invested over a billion naira to set up the RED TV and RED Radio in 2017. These investments have been catalysts for growth, it is a platform that we have set up for entrepreneur’s creative minds, to launch themselves into the market.
“As you can testify, UBA’s digital online television channel, has emerged as a dynamic platform championing African creativity, encompassing diverse fields such as music, fashion, film, and more.
Also, the Bank, has announced its unaudited financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2023, recording impressive growth across all key performance metrics.
Replicating the remarkable performance achieved in the first two quarters of the current fiscal year, the bank’s gross earnings grew by 115.2 per cent to N1.309 trillion up from N608bn recorded last year, while operating income rose by 146 per cent from N414 billion in September 2022; to N1.018 trillion in the year under consideration.
The bank’s financial report filed with the Nigerian Exchange Limited, indicated a whopping 262 per cent rise in Profit before Tax (PBT) to close at N502.01 billion compared to N138.49 billion recorded at the end of the third quarter of 2022, while profit after tax also rose impressively by 287.2 per cent from N116 billion recorded a year earlier to N449.29 billion massively surpassing its annualised return on average equity for Q3 2023 at 131 per cent to 44.37 per cent.
