Success begets more success, and that is exactly the story at Universal Merchant Bank (UMB) as it announces the appointment of its new Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Mr John Awuah.
The bank burst onto the financial market in 2014 with boldness and newness and within this short spate of time it has succeeded in achieving tremendous successes.
New initiatives
It revamped its credit policy to curtail historical bad loans, commissioned a process review committee to review existing processes and took on new hires to drive its new vision of excellence and customer focus.
It relocated its Head Office to the SSNIT Emporium Building at Airport, refurbished nine existing branches, added on six brand new branches, including state-of-the-art branches at Airport, Labone and Junction Mall.
Over the period, UMB has reactivated over 20,000 dormant accounts and signed on over 11,000 new accounts, deployed 20 ATMs across the nation and introduced 13 new products, including four designed for children.
The flurry of activities, underpinned by sound financial thinking, has led it to make significant cost savings every month to make it a very strong brand in the banking sector In Ghana.
New CEO
A release from the bank said the UMB was now ready to consolidate its gains under a new leadership, for which reason it had appointed Mr Awuah as the CEO.
It said Mr Awuah was coming to the team with a high degree of financial and managerial acumen. He is a notable personality in the banking industry and his rise in the sector has been meteoric.
He is a pioneer member of the Standard Chartered Bank International Accounting Standards project implementation team for Africa which handled the initial conversion of Financial Reporting across Africa from local accounting principles to International Financial Reporting Standards in 2004.
As the Head of Finance at United Bank for Africa (UBA) Ghana Ltd , the release said, Mr Awuah spearheaded the setting up and operations of the finance function of the bank and led the bank’s branch roll-out strategy.
As Financial Controller of Barclays Bank of Ghana, he played a key role in the successful corporate turn around of the bank, migrating it from a loss-making entity in 2008 to the number one bank (in terms of profitability) in 2011.
He was the leader of the Finance Functions of Ecobank Capital in six African countries where he spearheaded relationship with regulators and corporate strategy in the Investment Banking arm of the Ecobank Group.
Mr Awuah comes to UMB from GCB Bank Limited where he operated as the Finance Director/Chief Finance Officer, playing a key role in the ongoing institutional transformation and cultural change programme.
During his tenure, UMB proposes to make even greater strides.
More ATMS to be deployed
The release said the bank would deploy more ATMs to bring its total to over 90 ATMs nationwide, complete three more state-of-the-art branches at Osu, Airport and East Legon and add three MTOs (Trans fast, Unity Link, Oasis) to its portfolio to enhance remittance business.
The UMB’s expansion drive in 2015 includes a continued quest to upgrade for efficiency and growth.
On the international front, according to the release, UMB was ready to extend its scope to other markets in Africa, with no other personality than its former Managing Director, Ms Nilla Selormey, taking on the new role of advising UMB on its international expansion drive.