The Chairman of United Bank for Africa Plc, Mr Tony Elumelu, has confirmed that the financial institution will meet the Central Bank of Nigeria’s recapitalisation requirement of N500bn before the third quarter of 2025.
This is coming amid reports that March 2026 is the deadline for commercial banks with international authorisation.
Speaking while he addressed shareholders at the bank’s 65th Annual General Meeting held at the Transcorp Hilton in Abuja, Elumelu revealed that United Bank for Africa PLC is already making good progress when it comes to achieving the recapitalization target, especially with the successful completion of a rights issue last year.
According to him, after the rights issue that was launched in November 2024, which ushered in more subscribers than expected, N251bn has since been verified and approved by the Central Bank of Nigeria.
“Our current capital in the year 2024 was N116bn. However, following the rights issue that we launched in November last year, which was oversubscribed, N251bn has been verified and approved by the Central Bank of Nigeria,” he said.
Recall that the rights issue, which was wrapped up in December, 2024, saw 6.84 billion ordinary shares of 50 kobo offered to existing shareholders at N35 per share, and the UBA chairman disclosed that even if the issue was oversubscribed by N11.6bn, the bank could only take up N240bn, returning the balance to shareholders. Revealing that the bank’s new capital base reached N355.2bn after that, he said that the outstanding N144.8bn will be raised before the end of 2025.
Tony further said that deciding to raise capital via a rights issue rather than a public offering proves that the company is not selfish, and it will always prioritize safeguarding its shareholder value and acting against making life difficult for investors.
“The final capital raise is expected to be completed in Q3 2025, well ahead of the CBN deadline.
If we were selfish, we would do a public offering. But we said, let’s give the opportunity to existing shareholders. So, we pay dividends, and some of you use it to invest. The investment you’re making means you are sharing in the N3.4tn wealth that your investment has helped create,” Elumelu said.
He added that the bank’s commitment to reinvesting retained earnings instead of paying out profits as dividends has been directly responsible for the growth of UBA’s capital base in recent years.
“Our paid-up share capital is N116bn, and our shareholders’ fund is N3.4tn. That is over $3.2bn. Why should we bring in new investors to take what you have already built?
These strong results reflect the execution of our long-term strategy and the hard work of our staff in delivering value and innovation,” he added.
