Once again, United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc, has reaffirmed its leadership as one of the continent’s most innovative and resilient financial institutions, after the bank, for the third time in five years, emerged, African Bank of the year 2025 by the Banker.com.
UBA also won the Best Bank of the Year awards in nine of its 20 African subsidiaries, bringing its total to ten awards this year. Consequently, UBA Benin, UBA Chad, UBA Republic of Congo (Congo-Brazzaville), UBA Liberia, UBA Mali, UBA Mozambique, UBA Senegal, UBA Sierra Leone and UBA Zambia all came out tops in their respective countries, highlighting the bank’s strength across West, Central and Southern Africa and demonstrating the depth of its Pan-African franchise. Global Recognition at The Banker Awards (The Banker.com), a leading global finance publication of the Financial Times of London, organised the annual Bank of the Year Awards, and this year’s ceremony held at the Peninsula, London, on Wednesday. The Chief Executive Officer of UBA UK, Deji Adeyelure, received the awards on behalf of the bank, representing the Group Managing Director and CEO, Oliver Alawuba, and attended the event with the bank’s Head of Business Development, Mark Ifashe, and Head of Financial Institutions, Shilpam Jha. The Banker’s awards remain widely regarded as the most respected and rigorous in the global banking industry, as they celebrate institutions that demonstrate outstanding performance, innovation and strategic execution.
In its remarks on UBA’s winnings, The Banker.com stated, “For the third time in five years, UBA Group has won the coveted Bank of the Year award for Africa. UBA Group time after time punches above its weight against its larger African rivals. The bank this year also takes home nine separate country awards (one more than it gained for its last continental win in 2024), equivalent to around a quarter of the awards for the continent, and more than any of its continent-wide rivals.” Continuing, the publication added that the awards reflected a broad continental spread, pointing to lenders in ECOWAS countries such as Benin, Liberia, Senegal, Sierra Leone and former member Mali; and in the Central African Economic and Monetary Community, including Chad and the Republic of Congo. It also noted UBA’s wins in the Southern African Development Community through Mozambique and Zambia. According to The Banker, the awards for Benin and Mozambique stood out in highly competitive categories.
The Banker further highlighted UBA’s strong financial performance and commitment to sustainable growth. In 2024, the Group recorded a 46.8 percent increase in assets and a 6.1 percent rise in pre-tax profits in local currency terms, while continuing to invest in talent and technology. West Africa remained UBA’s core market, with operating revenue and profit rising by 87 percent and 89 percent respectively in the first half of 2025. Furthermore, the bank’s digital and innovation leadership received recognition. During the year under review, the bank launched its Advance Top-Up buy-now-pay-later feature on the *919# USSD platform, thereby expanding financial access for customers. Additionally, its chatbot, Leo, continued its growth trajectory, recording a 29 percent increase in transaction volumes year-on-year in H1 2025. Notably, in August, Leo became the first African banking chatbot to enable cross-border payments via the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS).