The Board of Directors of United Bank for Africa (Ghana) Limited (UBA Ghana) has appointed Mr. Olalekan Balogun as the new Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of the bank.
His appointment took effective from 8 May, 2020 and replaces Mr. Isong Udom, who has been the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of the bank since March 2018 and is now reassigned to UBA Plc, Nigeria.
Prior to his appointment, Mr. Balogun was the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of UBA in Liberia where he led a major transformation from June 2016, and grew the bank to become the dominant player in that country.
He has over twenty-five (25) years banking experience, having joined United Bank for Africa Plc. as a fresh graduate in June 1994, and has led and managed various departments and operations of the bank.
“As a Board, we are delighted to have someone of Olalekan’s calibre and experience to continue the bank’s growth strategy. At this critical moment in the financial services industry, we believe that his experience will greatly help in the successful implementation of our strategy,” Hon. Kwamena Bartels noted.
UBA Ghana is the biggest subsidiary operation of UBA Plc outside of Nigeria in the twenty (20) countries. The board believes that Olalekan’s experience from other jurisdictions will be useful in improving how the bank is already performing in Ghana, making UBA a major force in the industry.
Background
Olalekan Balogun, affectionately known as Lekan, has acquired a wealth of experience ranging over twenty years in banking. Lekan joined United Bank for Africa Plc. in June ’94 as an Operation Staff and moved to Marketing a year later. He quickly rose through the ranks to becoming a Relationship Manager in charge of Commercial Banking. As a result of his excellent performance, he rose quickly to the level of Manager in six (6) years.
In August 2000, Lekan resigned to join New Nigerian Bank Plc (NNB) as one of the turnaround staff to reposition the bank that had been under a central bank of Nigeria holding action for 10 years.
At NNB, he worked in several key roles as Business Manager and Head, Structured Business Group. After the Bank Consolidation exercise in 2005, NNB merged to be part of Unity Bank. Unity Bank comprised nine (9) banks, and as expected, there was staff right-sizing to reduce the staff strength to an optimum number.
Skill, competencies and experience were critical attributes in the selection process of staff to be retained in the newly formed bank. Olalekan was not only selected from among the lot but was appointed Regional Manager, Commercial Banking in charge of five (5) states out of the thirty-six (36) states in Nigeria.
After seven (7) years he rejoined UBA Plc. in 2007, where he was made the Business Manager, Industrial Avenue, Ilupeju; Acting Regional Director–Festac Region; and Regional Bank Head, Yaba. He excelled in all the roles and was appointed as the Strategic Business Group Head in 2014 to manage a larger portfolio covering 28 Business Offices in Lagos.
