UBA appoints Owanari Duke, Okwechime as directors

United Bank for Africa Plc, (UBA) has announced the appointment of Mrs. Owanari Duke and Mrs. Rose Ada Okwechime to the Group board.

The bank said Mrs. Duke, former First Lady of Cross River State is a legal practitioner with specialty in mediation and dispute resolution and philanthropist, has been the Managing Partner of the Law Firm of Duke & Bob-Manuel and also the Executive Chairman of Allied Merchants & Brokers Limited.

She is a Member of the Board of UNCTAD (United Nations Centre for Trade & Development) and the Country Director of EMPRETEC Nigeria Foundation – an UNCTAD Private Sector Support Initiative to assist Nigerians to achieve higher levels of productivity and competitiveness among Small and Medium-Scale Enterprises (SMEs).  She graduated from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, with LLB Hons in 1983 and a BL at Nigerian Law School, Lagos in 1984.

Also Okwechime is currently the Managing Director of Abbey Building Society – a multi-billion naira mortgage institution, has served as a public company director for over 20 years and her experience of the financial services industry includes service at the Bank of England. She was formerly a non-Executive Director on the Boards of Standard Trust Bank Plc and United Bank for Africa Plc.

She is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria, the Chartered Institute of Bankers, London, the Institute of Brand Management, the Institute of Direct Marketing of Nigeria and member of the Institute of Directors of Nigeria.

The appointments was made at a meeting of the Board of Directors which held in China on July 13, 2012 thus, bringing to four the number of women on the Board of the bank.

“We welcome these further distinguished members  to our Board and look forward to benefiting from their wealth of experience, as we continue to provide the required leadership and drive to grow shareholder value and delivering on our objective of being a leading African financial services institution” said Chief.  Israel C Ogbue, Chairman, UBA Board of Directors.