UBA Inks Record N21bn Deal With EIB For Private Sector Dev’t

[caption id="attachment_12672" align="alignnone" width="696"]Kennedy Uzoka, GMD/CEO of UBA[/caption]

The European Investment Bank (EIB) and United Bank for Africa (UBA) on Tuesday agreed a new whooping N21 billion lending programme to support the development of the private sector in Nigeria.

The deal represents one of EIB’s largest loan to UBA, which allows the bank provide longer term loans than they currently offer to private companies in the country.

Under the new initiative private sector entrepreneurs and companies will be able to use loans with a longer tenor than traditionally available to invest and expand activities across a range of sectors.

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In a statement released by UBA on Tuesday, the agreement was signed in the presence of the Vice President of the European Investment Bank Ambroise Fayolle, UBA’s Group Managing Director, Kennedy Uzoka and Head of Global Financial Institutions, UBA Sola Yomi-Ajayi at the just concluded World Bank Annual/International Monetary Fund (IMF) meetings in Washington DC.

“Private sector investment is crucial for creating jobs and ensuring sustainable economic growth,” Fayolle said on the occasion.

“The EIB is committed to unlocking investment across Africa and we are pleased to build on past success to strengthen our partnership with UBA that will benefit projects across Nigeria.”

Also speaking, Uzoka said: “Our growing partnership with the European Investment Bank underlines our long term objective of facilitating the development and growth of African businesses.

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“This facility will enable UBA bridge critical financing gaps for Nigerian companies and deepen our capacity to support their growth aspirations in the local and international market place.”

Also, Michel Arrion, the Head of the European Union (EU) Delegation to Nigeria and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), described the deal as an illustration of EU’s commitment to support Nigeria’s economic development.

In his words, “We look forward to more fruitful partnerships with Nigeria, and particularly with the private sector, which remains the engine of economic growth.”

“The European Investment Bank is the world’s largest international public bank and over the last five years has provided EUR 12.8 billion for investment across Africa,” he added.

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