The Group Chairman, United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc, Tony O. Elumelu, has challenged foreign investors to tap into the huge investment opportunities existing in Africa amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
He made the charge, Thursday, while speaking at a virtual session organised by the TIME100TALKS with the theme: ‘Empowering Entrepreneurs.’
“Challenges exist in Africa, but we have huge returns on investments. There is no better time to make the multi-million dollar bet I made in Africa, than the times we live in now,” he told Kimberly Dozier, a Time Correspondent, who moderated the session.
On the effect of the pandemic on financial institutions, he said: “In banking business, this whole digital transformation is heightened further by COVID-19. Right now, you have less than 15 percent of our over 20 million bank customers that are transacting in the bank. Most of them now transact online, which is 85 per cent of over 20 million customers. That is significant. Before COVID, it was about 65 percent. UBA is seeing an explosion in its digital platforms.”
In his own submission, Bill Gates sought for collaboration between the private and public sectors to end the pandemic, adding, “every country has to think through the right policies to stop the spread, there is need to speed up the process of getting new drugs and vaccines. We need a global response.”
