The newly appointed Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of the United Bank for Africa (UBA), Chris Ofikulu, has assured President Akufo-Addo that he would support his government to succeed.
The MD says it was his interest to support the administration of President Akufo-Addo to leave a monumental mark before his tenure of office elapse.
Mr Chris Ofikulu was at Jubilee House on Thursday, May 19, 2022 to meet President Akufo-Addo to officially present himself to him, as the new MD of UBA Ghana.
During the conversation, the MD cited a word that President Akufo-Addo had used earlier and said during “my reign here if there is any way I can support to get this going for the state and for the government, as I said we are interested in supporting you to leave the type of mark you want to leave and that I am giving you my support.”
King of Masquerades
The MD, in his initial address told President Akufo-Addo he took over office in February, this year, but did not think it was necessary to meet him to pay homage.
Referring to where he comes from, the MD said there are different types of masquerades, but for him, President Akufo-Addo “is the one I am seeing as the king of all masquerades and I felt that there was no way I can walk freely in this country without coming to pay homage.”
Job Creationn & Support
Mr Ofikulu informed President Akufo-Addo that UBA Ghana has 768 staff spread across all the branches in the country. He added that out of the number 99.7% are purely Ghanaian staff, with 5 being other nationals.
He said that the bank has supported the government in several ways especially when COVID-19 struck, by giving GH₡2 million to support the fight. He mentioned the bank’s support in the educational sector by way of giving back to the society.
Entrepreneurship
Mr Ofikulu further indicated that the bank was strong in promoting entrepreneurship because it believes in self-reliance and as such the bank was putting together resources to support the government to implement YouStart.
President Akufo-Addo
President Akufo-Addo recalled that the UBA Ghana came into fruition under the tenure of former President John Agyekum Kufuor, when he was the Foreign Minister.
He said that the performance of the bank in the country has been very positive, but was concerned with the intercourse between African businesses.
According to President Akufo-Addo, collaboration between businesses on the continent was a sure way to develop the bloc and as such, commended the bank for moving outside of Nigeria to have branches in Ghana.
“So, I have every reason to welcome you to my office and to let you know that on the part of government, we are here to support the private sector,” he said, and assured the MD of the government’s outmost support.
“So, count on this government to support your enterprise here in Ghana to grow, to make money because there is no investment [and] there is no expansion to see that the business continues to grow.”
