United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc has announced intensified efforts to recover outstanding loans and confirmed plans to resume dividend payments to shareholders within the year, even as the bank reported a significant decline in profitability for the financial year ended December 31, 2025.
The assurance was given by the Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Oliver Alawuba, while reacting to the bank’s audited financial statements, which showed that pre-tax profit fell by 47% to about N423 billion, down from N804 billion recorded in 2024.
Alawuba attributed the sharp decline largely to a one-off provision of about N331 billion for bad loans, following regulatory requirements linked to the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) directive on exiting the loan forbearance window.
According to the UBA chief executive, the bank is now actively pursuing loan defaulters, with early signs indicating some level of repayment compliance.
“We’re going after these defaulting customers and there are signs that they are paying back. Once they do, we’ll be in a position to pay dividends for this year,” Alawuba said.
He explained that the suspension of final dividend payments last year was a compliance measure tied to elevated non-performing loan (NPL) ratios after the regulatory forbearance exit, stressing that the development was temporary.