AFDB approves $150m facility for UBA

The African Development Bank Group (AfDB), through its private sector window, has approved a $150 million Line of Credit (LOC) to United Bank for Africa Plc (UBA).

UBA is one of the Africa’s largest banks with operations in 19 African countries, providing a wide range of products and services.

The bank has been the leading financial institution supporting various infrastructure projects, particularly power, telecom, transport and also social infrastructure such as hospital and education facilities. This has given the financial institution a lot of recognition and awards, including the Social Infrastructure Deal of the Year Award in 2015.

In its Nigeria operations, UBA supports over 3700 Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), covering all the 36 states of the federation, through over 450 business offices and touch points.

The LOC will thus help finance infrastructure and SME projects, including women-owned enterprises in Nigeria. It will support infrastructure development, particularly the power sector, which is a major constraint for Nigeria’s economic diversification and inclusive growth.

The power sector financing gap in Nigeria remains enormous with almost 50 per cent of the population lacking access to electricity.

By leveraging UBA’s network, the LOC will also scale up lending in both urban and rural areas to create more jobs and to promote inclusive growth for Nigeria’s economy by stimulating the various sectors such as manufacturing, construction, agriculture, education and services.