Since his approval by the Bank of Sierra Leone as the Managing Director / CEO of United Bank for Africa – UBA Sierra Leone on 30 January 2024, customers and other investors in the bank have said Mohamed Alhajie Samoura inspires confidence.
Mr Samoura is the first Sierra Leonean to hold the bank’s top position. He took over the reins at the bank from Usman Isiaka who is now Deputy MD / CEO of UBA New York.
Confidence is central to a bank’s operations as customers, partners and clients develop trust in an institution they have confidence. Under Samoura’s leadership the bank posted impressive improvements on all indices for the 2023 financial year that is a testament to his dedicated leadership replete with innovative programmes to ensure financial inclusion for all.
Before assuming the bank’s top position, the new UBA Sierra Leone MD/CEO demonstrated his leadership ability as the bank’s executive director of Business Development. As MD/CEO he demonstrated continuity by building on the legacies of his predecessors by doubling the figures in profitability, deposits, revenue, risk asset and account opening.
According to UBA Sierra Leone, Mohamed Alhajie Samoura’s move to the bank’s substantive position is in line with the UBA Group’s strategic focus on domesticating the bank’s products, services and governance to meet the local content policy of host economies the Group operates in, in over twenty African countries.
As UBA Sierra Leone celebrates a record setting performance for the 2023 financial year, employees at the bank dedicate it to the renewed sense of purpose and achievement the new MD/CEO has inspired in them.
Some of the bank’s notable achievements under the new MD and CEO include but not limited to a 37 per cent growth in customer deposits from Le2.08 billion in 2022 to Le2.86 billion in 2023. Other areas of improvements include: growth in year on year gross earnings, growths in profit before and profit after tax, improved cost to income ratio, return on average equity, increased corporate tax payment obligation to the government of Sierra Leone, growth in total assets and net loans, and growth in shareholders’ funds.
These remarkable achievements by a local and home grown banking executive have positioned United Bank for Africa Sierra Leone as the bank of choice for new customers. Mohamed Alhajie Samoura has overseen the introduction of innovative tech driven banking products and the use of local celebrities to help the bank identify with the country’s youthful population that forms the bulk of the over seven million inhabitants.
Headed by Mr Samoura, UBA SL re-launched the UBA NextGen Product using Drizilik, one of the best hip hop artists in Africa from Sierra Leone, as its and the Brand Ambassador for the Leo Retail Banking Products. Drizilik has promoted these banking products on the UBA’s various social media platforms.
Since the UBA Group entered Sierra Leone in 2008, it has enjoyed one of its best performing years as a bank after introducing Mr Samoura as its substantive head.
Recognizing the bank’s growing significance to the local populace, UBA Sierra Leone under CEO / MD Mohamed Alhajie Samoura has received the Banker’s Bank of the Year 2022 and 2023 from the Financial Times of the United Kingdom, the National Climate Change Partnership Award, the National Development Award for Exceptional Bank of the Year in Digital Services and Financial Inclusion, and the Business Excellence Award for corporate excellence and socio economic growth in Sierra Leone.
