BY NDUMBE BELL JOSEPH GASTON IN DOUALA
Insiders say UBA Cameroon has been financially instrumental in the realisation of the Olembé Stadium in Yaoundé and the Japoma Sports Complex, Douala as Cameroon prepared to host the just-ended AFCON 2021 games.
It was UBA who supported state efforts by contributing 15% of the overall cost of the construction of the 34-hectare multipurpose stadium some 13 kilometres at the periphery of Yaoundé city, and said to be the biggest in Cameroon and the ninth in the African continent (though the amount of loan was not disclosed in real terms).
The same sources say, it was again UBA Cameroon that significantly granted bonds and guarantees and short term loans up to a colossal value of USD 284.48 million for the 50.000-seater Japoma multi-sports complex to assure it’s realisation in Douala. The Japoma Stadium had been experimented upon when it successfully hosted the 2021 Total CHAN games.
Tinkering with success and creeping up to find their way in the sunny skies, the subsidiary of the UBA group chaired by Nigerian business tycoon, Tony Elumelu, whose Managing Director and Deputy are Jude Anele and Mme Marguerite Atanga respectively, is said to have won the 2021 Bank of the Year award according to the Banker Magazine, a famous leading global finance news publication published by the Financial Times of London.
The new UBA Cameroun strongman Jude Anele stated that “UBA has been quoted as a systematically important bank (SIB) and rated amongst the top 4 banks in Cameroon in terms of total assets”.
After commencing its operations in 2007, they have a new headquarters in Akwa, present in seven out of 10 regions in Cameroon, have new branches or agencies, signed lots of partnership with very brilliant start-ups and both private and public sectors, so as to move the Cameroonian economy forward. At the end of 2020 UBA Cameroon is said to have realised a balance sheet total USD937 million and said to be having a very ambitious package in 2022 to move further up to the top in banking business in Cameroon.
