Board’s president of United Bank of Africa (UBA), Tony Elumelu revealed that the group was getting ready to launch a new expansion phase in Africa, Nigeria excluded, which should bring to 25 its number of offices which is currently at 18. “We wish to become the leader in terms of financial services in Africa,” Mr Elumelu told journalists in Lagos.

Despite Nigeria being UBA’s main market, the current economic difficulties that the country is experiencing put a lot of pressure on various sectors, including banking. Banks in fact now have to choose between cutting down allocated loans in consideration of associated serious risks and keeping up with flexible lending strategy which could result in a surge in bad debts.

UBA for its part seems to have opted for the cautious approach. Its loans in the market fell by 5.8% to N835 billion. Meanwhile, credits across Africa rose by 6% nearing N200 billion. Also, the group’s businesses in Africa generated 25% of what it earned in 2015.