The British magazine The Banker plebiscites UBA in Cote d'Ivoire

Sarata Koné-Thiam, manager director of UBA bank of Côte d'Ivoire

The Banker magazine, a publication of the Financial Times, has just awarded the “Best Bank 2020” of Cote d'Ivoire to the local subsidiary of the United Bank of Africa (UBA) group.

The British media highlighted the bank's excellent financial performance over the past few years, which has more than doubled its annual results each year in 2017, 2018 and 2019.

Documents consulted by Sika Finance have confirmed this beautiful dynamic. From a loss of 1.4 billion FCFA at the end of 2016, the net result went green at 2.09 billion FCFA at the end of 2017 before rising to 4.6 billion FCFA at the end of 2018. A meteoric increase that was confirmed in 2019 according to the media.

These strong results are attributable to a management change in 2015 with the appointment of Sarata Koné-Thiam, a former HSBC and Citibank CEO.

"The pandemic has proven to be an opportunity for us"

It also noted the great advances made by the bank in the digital sector. The bank has launched its Leo chatbot, a virtual assistant that assists clients with their online operations and is accessible via WhatsApp or the Nextgen savings account designed for students and offering them facilities.

"The pandemic has proved to be an opportunity for us," Sarata Koné-Thiam told The Banker, explaining that while physical account openings decreased by 40% between April and June, the use of digital channels increased by 60% over the period. "Clients were looking for an efficient and safe way to do their banking activity" she said.

Jean Mermoz Konandi

Publié le 04/12/20 16:45