Pan-African
financial services group, United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc continue to garner
national and international laurels with the latest being the Corporate Citizens Award in the
'Extensive Compliance Category.
UBA received the award
at the maiden edition of the awards ceremony organised by the Corporate Affairs
Commission (CAC) at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja, Nigeria.
The Corporate
Citizens Award is open to all registered companies in Nigeria and seeks to
promote the culture of good corporate governance in the Nigerian environment by
recognising corporate citizens who have conducted their affairs in compliance
with statutory requirements and best practices.
L-R: Dan Okeke, Executive Director, Abuja and East Bank receiving the award from Otunba Funso Lawal, Chairman of the Board of CAC.
“The idea behind
this initiative is to recognize performance and reward corporate excellence
among companies operating in Nigeria, with the ultimate goal of improving our
rating in the global competitiveness index” said Otunba Funso Lawal, Chairman
of the Board of Directors of the Commission in his remarks at the ceremony.
To be eligible for
consideration, companies must have complied with the requirements of the
Companies and Allied Matters Act and respective industry statutes and
regulations. Apart from impacting on their respective industries positively
they are expected to have performed
creditably well in corporate social responsibility.
Specifically the
independent panel of judges under the Chairmanship of Dr. Christopher Kolade,
Fmr. Nigerian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, looked at financial
management, work place environment, management of stakeholder relations,
innovation, corporate social responsibility, industry leadership as well as
corporate governance to select winners.
26 companies including UBA made the final list from over 800 companies
that were considered and we were one of the 9 winners that eventually emerged.
Mr Olusegun Aganga,
Minister for Commerce and Industry, who represented the President, Federal
Republic of Nigeria, Goodluck Jonathan at the event commended all the companies
who received award at the event while encouraging those who did not win to
imbibe the best practices of the companies that won. He noted that the awards will provoke commitment to best
business practices among companies in Nigeria and expressed happiness that this
is coming at a time the current government’s transformation agenda is
blossoming.
Welcoming the recognition to the bank,
Phillips Oduoza, Group Managing Director and CEO UBA Plc said the award reaffirms the bank’s
commitment to best practices in the way it does its business across the
continent.
“We operate in
multi-jurisdictions given that we have presence in 19 African countries and
three international financial centres; London, New York and Paris. We are thus
committed to higher standards in regulatory compliance in the interest of our
stakeholders and and customers.” Oduoza
said.
