How Hakeem Belo-Osagie took UBA from bankruptcy to a $250 million exit

Hakeem Belo-Osagie has revealed that United Bank for Africa (UBA) was actually bankrupt when he and his investors acquired it in 1994. He led one of Nigeria's most dramatic corporate turnarounds, growing the bank's value from about $10 million to $15 million to roughly $250 million by the time he sold out in 2005.

A shocking discovery after buying the bank

Belo-Osagie said he and his partners thought they were buying a distressed bank that needed restructuring. Within weeks, they realised the situation was far worse.

“After the first week or two, I now realised that the bank was bankrupt,” he said in a recent interview.

“There was this massive structure which you thought was this incredible thing you’ve bought, and then you just realise that, I’m sorry to say it, but for years, they’d basically been playing games with their accounts.”

He attributed UBA's problems to losses in its New York operations, poor consolidation of key accounts, and years of weak corporate governance.

Drastic reforms and constant attacks

The new owners moved quickly. Belo-Osagie recalled that restoring UBA required painful decisions.

“We had to sack half of all the staff because they were hopelessly corrupt staff. We had to remove three-quarters of all top management,” he said.

The restructuring took place under intense scrutiny from multiple government agencies. He listed investigations by the Securities and Exchange Commission, Military Intelligence, State Security, Tax, and Revenue authorities.

“We had to survive investigations by the Securities and Exchange Commission, Military Intelligence, State Security, Tax, Revenue, all parts of a continued attack,” he said.

He also warned at the time that unless Nigeria's old-generation banks reformed, newer banks like Zenith Bank, Diamond Bank and GTBank would overtake them. That prediction largely came true after the banking consolidation reforms of 2004 and 2005.

Exit and legacy

By 2005, UBA had been rebuilt. Belo-Osagie said the bank's value had climbed to between $250 million and $300 million, despite the depreciation of the naira.

“So, all in all, I think we did a good job,” he said.

He made clear that he never saw himself as a banker. “I never intended to hold on to it. I'm not a banker. I was merely an investor.”

The constant pressure also took a toll. “I was frankly speaking a little bit tired of the constant attacks,” he said.

So selling UBA made both commercial and personal sense. “You're sitting on this nominal profit. It's a huge gap between what I bought and the value. Why not? We crystallised the money made and went on to other things.”

After exiting UBA, Belo-Osagie focused on expanding FSDH Merchant Bank and other investments. His stewardship of UBA remains one of Nigeria's most notable corporate rescue stories, taking a bank he discovered was effectively bankrupt and building it into an investment worth roughly a quarter of a billion dollars.