All Posts in "Day: January 30, 2023"

UBA appoints Ghanaian, Abiola Bawuah as first female CEO for Africa

By Favour Nnabugwu

 

 

 

United Bank for Africa Plc has appointed Ghanaian national, Abiola Bawuah, as its Africa new Chief Executive Officer (CEO).

Bawuah will oversee the bank’s operations across Africa, excluding Nigeria, according to the bank’s statement.

She is the first female CEO of the UBA Africa and her appointment demonstrates the bank’s commitment to diversity.

Before her appointment as the bank’s Africa CEO, Bawuah was UBA’s Regional CEO for West Africa, managing operations in nine subsidiaries including Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Senegal, and Sierra Leone. She had also served as the CEO of UBA Ghana.

Commenting on Bawuah’s appointment, the UBA Group’s Board Chairman, Tony Elumelu, said, “Abiola has contributed significantly to the growth of UBA Africa for close to a decade. She brings a wealth of experience in commercial banking, and stakeholder engagement. It also gives me great pleasure that with her appointment, the UBA Group Board has now become a majority female board.”

The bank also announced other key executive appointments across the group.

The appointments include: Regional CEO of UBA West Africa, Chris Ofikulu; Deputy Managing Director of UBA Ghana, Uzoechina Molokwu; Managing Director/CEO UBA Liberia, Ayokunle Olajubu; CEO of UBA UK, Theresa Henshaw; Deputy CEO in UBA America, Usman Isiaka; and Group Treasurer, Adeyemi Adeleke, all appointments subject to their various local regulatory approvals

Patoma Admin by — January 30, 2023 in Banking & Finance 0
Ukrainian/Russian War: AfDB sets put $1.5bn Emergency Food Production Facility for Africa – Adesina

…34 countries, 20 milion farmers to benefit

 

By Favour Nnabugwu

 

 

The African Development Bank (AfDB) has  set aside $1.5 billion  Emergency Food Production Facility to support food sufficiency in Africa.

The President of the AfDB, Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina, during a courtesy visit to the Ogun State Governor, Dapo Abiodun, on Monday, noted that the facility became imperative as a result of the ongoing war between Ukraine and Russia which had seen prices of wheat and maize skyrocket.

Adesina added that the emergency food production facility would be supporting 34 countries, with 20 million farmers producing roughly 38 million metric tons of food valued at $12b.

He expressed confidence that Africa would not have a food crisis as a result of the war in Ukraine.

Adesina, while also noting that a Feed Africa Summit in Dakar, Senegal, which had about 34 heads of state in attendance, including President Muhammadu Buhari.of Nigeria, was able to mobilize $30b in support of food and agriculture delivery compact of countries in Africa.

“Because of the war in Ukraine by Russia which actually sent prices of wheat and maize skyrocketing, all over the world, we have global inflation because of that and therefore, the impact of that is going to be quite serious for our houses, particularly, low income households.

“The African Development Bank has put in place immediately a $1.5b Emergency Food Production Facility that is currently now supporting 34 countries, with 20 million farmers to produce roughly 38 million metric tons of food valued at $12b.

“So, I am pretty confident we are not going to have a food crisis as a result of the war in Ukraine, but, we cannot stop there, am just coming here having completed the Feed Africa Summit in Dakar, that I co-organized with His Excellency, President of Senegal.

” It was a hugely successful summit, we were able to mobilize $30b in support of food and agriculture delivery compact of countries that will allow African countries to be totally self sufficient in food. In 3 to 5 years, we should be done with feeding ourselves, we should be actually exporting food and several other things,” he said.

While commending Governor Dapo Abiodun for the Agro Cargo Airport project which is set to be commissioned in the first quarter of 2023, the AFDB President noted that having a cargo airport in the state would facilitate the development of agricultural value chain in Ogun.

“The Cargo Airport is an excellent idea, because when you produce agricultural commodities, you would not only be able to store it, you have to be able to process it and you have to be able to transport it.

And I think having a cargo airport would just facilitate the development of agricultural value chain right here in Ogun State, it is a very very excellent idea and I have always supported it from the start,” Adesina submitted

Patoma Admin by — January 30, 2023 in Foreign 0
Pension funds stand at N14.99trn – PenCom

By Favour Nnabugwu

 

National Pension Commission, PenCom’s latest ‘Report on pension industry portfolio for the period ended 31 December 2022’ revealed that Pension fund had risen from N13.42 trillion  to N14.99tn by the end of December 2022.

Contributors in the scheme rose slightly by 333,002 from 9,529,127 as of the end of 2021 to 9,862,129 in the corresponding period

According to the figures, N9.64tn or 64.33 per cent of the assets was invested in the Federal Government of Nigeria’s securities, N1.66tn was invested in corporate debt securities, N1.98tn was invested in money market securities and N82.8bn in mutual funds among other investment portfolios.

In the 2022 third quarter report of the pension industry, the Director-General, PenCom, Aisha Dahir-Umar, said despite the overwhelming head-winds in the global economic climate and the country’s challenging macroeconomic environment, the pension fund assets under management increased.

“This laudable performance, in the growth of the AuM, points to the fact that the pension industry will continue to deliver value and benefit to its stakeholders and the nation’s economy,” she said.

During the period under review, the director-general, said PenCom steadily pursued increased diversification of pension fund portfolios by ramping up efforts aimed at ensuring sustained investment of pension fund in alternative asset classes and structured infrastructure projects that meet the stringent requirements as enshrined in the regulation for the investment of pension fund assets.

She said PenCom’s efforts at diversifying investments of pension funds and hedging against inflation had gradually begun to yield results.

According to her, efforts were on going to ensure that the annualised average rates of return of pension funds across Retirement Savings Account and legacy funds were above headline inflation rates.

She said, “Perhaps, the most significant achievement recorded in the third quarter of 2022 was the successful issuance of guidelines on accessing RSA

“Balance towards payment of equity contribution for residential mortgage. The guidelines give effect to Section 89(2) of the Pension Reform Act 2014, which allows eligible RSA holders to apply a percentage of the balances in their Retirement Savings Accounts for payment of equity contribution towards residential mortgage for employees of the public, private and the informal sectors.”

She stated that the achievement in the Nigerian pension industry could not have been possible without the right people, strategy, culture and governance structures that supported the delivery of consistent and sustained value for all its stakeholders

Patoma Admin by — January 30, 2023 in Pension 0
Consolidated Insurance Bill close to President Buhari’s appendage

By Favour Nnabugwu

 

 

The Chairman of the Nigerian Insurers Association, Mr Segun Omosehin, has said the Consolidated Insurance Bill is going through the final legislative process to get a presidential accent.

Omosehin said the Bill is going through process’s of the final that will be present to President Mujammadu Buharii got appendage on the bill to make a law.

Speaking during a press conference in Lagos, the NIA chairman said,  “The process for reviewing the Insurance Act 2003 has been ongoing since the year 2020 when the Consolidated Insurance Bill was proposed.

“Since then, we have been following through with all the processes and I am indeed delighted to inform you the Bill has been passed. It is currently going through the remaining legislative procedures preparatory to the Presidential accent.

“We are hopeful that it will receive speedy attention so that the industry can begin to tap into the opportunities provided by the new law.”

Patoma Admin by — January 30, 2023 in Insurance 0