UBA TANZANIA CONDUCTS A COACHING CLASS FOR YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS RUNNING FOR TEF $5,000 SEED CAPITAL APPLICATION

The Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF)—is the private-sector-led philanthropy focused on empowering African entrepreneurs. The Programme targets small business owners, the foundation was established by Tony Elumelu (CON), who is also the Group Chairman of United Bank for Africa (UBA Plc) operating in twenty African countries and 3 global financial service centres; London, New York and Paris.

The Programme is a 10-year, $100 million commitment to identify, train, mentor and fund 10,000 young African entrepreneurs. The goal is to create millions of jobs and the revenue required for the sustainable development of the continent, in line with the Foundation’s philosophy of Africapitalism, which positions the private sector as the growth engine for Africa and emphasizes the importance of creating social and economic wealth.

The TEF Entrepreneurship Programme is open to entrepreneurs from across Africa, either with new startup business ideas or existing businesses of less than 3 years’ existence, operating in any sector. Successful applicants will join the over 9,000 current beneficiaries, from 54 African countries, and receive business training, mentoring, a non-refundable $5,000 of seed capital with access to global business networking opportunities through the TEF Connect; a fully integrated online real-time application that connects several entrepreneurs, their products and services across the continent.

Last year, the Foundation received about 216,000 applications, with 42% coming from women entrepreneurs, from every country on the continent. Since commencement of the TEEP in 2015, 189 Tanzanian entrepreneurs have benefited from the programme with a total funding support of $1.89m (about TZS4.3billion) in the form of training, mentoring and seed capital of $5,000 each to support the implementation of their start-up business ideas or grow their existing businesses.

UBA Tanzania as part of its initiative to ensure that more Tanzanian entrepreneurs emerge as successful applicants for the program this year 2020, decided to organize a free coaching session for the interested members of the public.

A total of 100 potential applicants participated in an intensive business training organized by the bank at the Golden Tulip Hotel City Centre on Tuesday 21^st January 2020.  The application for TEF opened since 1^st January 2020 and will end early in March.

Speaking at the event, the CEO of Clouds Media Group Mr. Joseph Kusaga enjoined participants at the training session to take advantage of this positive gesture of UBA Tanzania to ensure that they diligently complete their applications to enable them emerge as winners of the seed fund. Mr. Kusaga also used the occasion to commend the Group chairman of UBA, Mr. Tony Elumelu for dedicating a huge amount of $100 million for the development of young entrepreneurs. Encouraging young Tanzanian entrepreneurs to go for the application so as to reduce unemployment challenges, Joseph Kusaga advised the youths to be upfront grabbing such golden opportunities which are very rare to find in our country.

One of the TEF alumni for the year 2017, Mr. Kimambo shared his experience with TEF and said that the programme is transparent and everyone who apply and win, gets the $5,000 seed capital and enjoys free online training sessions via the TEFConnect. “I encourage my fellow Tanzanians to grab this opportunity, all you have to do is apply online, submit your best business initiative and win free $5000 as a seed capital to implement your start-up business idea or grow your existing business.

The UBA Tanzania’s MD/CEO Usman Isiaka in his welcome address stated that The Tony Elumelu Foundation is the leading philanthropic institution in Africa with focus on entrepreneurship development. The TEF has trained, mentored and granted seed capitals to over 9000 entrepreneurs across the 54 African countries with cumulative seed capital funding of over $45m. He advised the participants in the session and media representatives present to encourage other young Tanzanian entrepreneurs to apply for the programme

UBA - Africa’s Global Bank - Announces Appointments to Group Board and Africa Operations – Underlining Importance of African and Global Business Lines

Lagos, Nigeria, January 06, 2020, United Bank for Africa Plc (UBA) today, announced that Oliver Alawuba has been appointed as CEO of UBA Africa, overseeing the bank’s  20 African country operations, ex-Nigeria.  He succeeds Victor Osadolor, who retires from the Group Board, after 9 years of service working at UBA.  UBA Africa serves over 19 million customers across the African continent, providing retail, commercial and institutional banking services, leading financial inclusion and implementing cutting edge products including the first ever banking chat bot in Africa, LEO.

Mr. Alawuba has close to three decades of banking industry experience. He was once the CEO of UBA Ghana and rose to become Regional CEO, UBA Africa before returning to Nigeria to run UBA’s East Bank.  Under his leadership, UBA’s Nigerian East Bank division became the fastest growing regional bank in the Group.

The Board further appointed Senegalese national, Abdoul-Aziz Dia as Executive Director for Treasury and International Banking, subject to the approval of the Central Bank of Nigeria. Aziz becomes the first non-Nigerian Group Executive Director of the Bank, bringing a wealth of multi geographical experience to the Group.  Mr Dia will be responsible for UBA’s global network of operations in New York, London and Paris, together with Group Treasury, where UBA offers a sophisticated suite of products to multinationals, international institutions and African clients.

Chukwuma Nweke, currently the Executive Director Operations, was confirmed by the Board as the Group Executive Director, Retail and Payments, demonstrating the Group’s commitment to its retail offering. Chuks has close to three decades of banking experience spanning Banking Operations, Finance, Technology, Audit and Strategy.

The Board also announced the appointment of Chiugo Ndubisi as Group Executive Director and the Group Chief Operating Officer, subject to the approval of the Central Bank of Nigeria. Chiugo is a professional with almost three decades of banking experience that includes the role of Chief Finance Officer(CFO) and Executive Director on the board of a financial institution. His in-depth understanding of banking and finance industry dynamics will bring a lot of value to the Group Board of UBA.

Speaking on the appointments, Group Chairman Tony O. Elumelu said “These appointments emphasise the Group’s commitment to our pan-African and global network, our huge retail client base and our operational infrastructure.  We are focused on improving our efficiency and further strengthening our pan-African mission, using the extraordinary pool of talent and experience available in the Group.”

Elumelu thanked both the outgoing Deputy Managing Director/CEO, UBA Africa, Mr. Victor Osadolor, and the former Regional CEO for UBA in East and Southern Africa, Emeke Iweriebor, who just retired from the board, for their contributions to the Bank.  “Victor and Emeke were key players during the merger of Standard Trust Bank and UBA and have been valuable contributors to the growth of the Bank. We wish them well”.

The Board appointments underline UBA’s broader commitment to investing in the highest quality human capital.  The Bank recently reformed its grade structure and technology teams, having reduced its grade structure from 16 to 12 levels, at the end of 2019.  The Bank welcomed 3,000 new staff members in 2019 and promoted over 5,000 employees.  UBA is the largest employer  in the Nigerian banking sector, with a staff strength of close to 20,000 employees group wide