Union Bank Repays CBN $800 million Bailout Fund

Union Bank MD, Funke Osibodu

Union Bank of Nigeria Plc yesterday announced that it had paid its $800 million bailout fund it collected from CBN, this development was made possible following the huge leap in its deposit and current accounts.

Speaking on the facts behind the Figure on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange, Mrs Funke Osibodu,  the Chief Executive Officer stated that, the bank paid the debt with interest and in the same period recorded growth in market share and maintains a strong financial position.

It could be recalled that Union Bank was one of the banks CBN bailed out in 2009, CBN injected N620 billion into the bank and the bank owed that much until recently. African Capital Alliance, Amcon and other shareholders since acquired the bank with 65%, 20%, and 15% respectively.

Reports coming in last week confirmed that Union Bank has continued to improve on its financial performance with a net profit of N13.6 billion, a PAT of N16.14billion, increased equity to N207.92 billion, all from negative to positive as posted in 2011.
According to Osibodu, other areas of improvement included, “low NPL ratio of five per cent, Strong liquidity, solid capitalisation with CAR of 20.79 per cent, increased number of profitable branches, accountable subsidiaries, emergence of younger workforce and improvement in financial accountability”.

She said the bank’s performance was an indication of its determination to help develop important sectors of the economy, especially the agricultural sector and reinforcing national food security.

She continued that the bank will always use the best risk management practices available as well as put together all logistics needed for customer’ business to grow with free based returns.

“This day forward, strengthening customer relationship will be one of the bank’s tactics building the image of the bank as well as extending products and offers to customers”, she said.

The Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Stock Exchange, Oscar Onyema noted in his opening remark that, notwithstanding recent problems that have besieged the bank, it has kept its word as the slogan goes, “Big, Strong, and Reliable.”

His words:  “It is interesting to note that it is the only commercial bank among the erstwhile revitalized banks that still retains its identity. While four of the then rescued banks have since been acquired and three were bridged, Union Bank survived the storm.”

He concluded that Union Bank has finally retained its position as the Best Performing Bank in Nigeria under the CBN-managed Agricultural Credit Guarantee Scheme Fund (ACGSF) and the bank has awards to that effect.
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