About UBA Foundation

Kennedy UZOKA was the Group Managing Director/CEO of the United Bank for Africa(UBA) from 2016-2022. United Bank for Africa is a leading financial services group in sub-Saharan Africa with a presence in 20 African countries, as well as the United Kingdom, the United States of America, the United Arab Emirates and France.

As the GMD/CEO, he led the development and execution of UBA Group’s long-term strategy. Prior to becoming the GMD, he was UBA Group’s Deputy Managing Director and CEO, UBA Africa managing the country subsidiaries across 18 countries in Africa as well as supervising 3 key strategic support areas in Digital Banking, Information Technology and Personal Banking. As Deputy Managing Director, he was the Executive in charge of the Group’s businesses in New York and London.

He holds a B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Benin, South-south Nigeria and an MBA from the University of Lagos, South-west Nigeria. Mr. Uzoka has over two decades of experience covering core banking, corporate communications and marketing, strategy, and business advisory services. He is an alumnus of Harvard Business School(AMP) in Boston USA, the International Institute of Management Development (IMD) in Lausanne, Switzerland, and the London Business School, United Kingdom.

Bola Atta was nominated as the Best Marketing professional in West Africa in 2017. She was also on the list of the 40 top Nigerians under 40 in 2008 and celebrated as one of the 100 most influential women in Nigeria in March 2015. A graduate of Economics with an M.B.A majoring in Marketing, she has almost 30 years of experience in diverse fields ranging from Banking, Business, Communications, Publishing, Entertainment, and the Media. Approximately 20 out of her experience have been in high-level management and entrepreneurship, enabling her to gain advanced knowledge in each of these varied fields of work.

She has worked with government agencies both in Nigeria and South Africa using her expertise in public relations and increasing her wide network within Africa. She made a mark in the Media industry on the African continent as one of the most sought after editors in West Africa and was featured on CNN’s Market Place Africa in March 2010 in a segment on African Fashion.

She co-founded the LifeStream Charity in order to assist underprivileged children with heart problems. Over 100 children were sent to Israel from Nigeria for corrective heart surgery by the LifeStream Charity between 1997 and 2003. Atta is currently the CEO of the UBA Foundation which focuses on Education, Economic Empowerment, and the Environment, bettering the lives of people across the African continent.

Mary Chinye Udu- Ejembi was born in Lagos on January 8^th, 1963. She holds a B.A in Philosophy & an M.A in Public Administration from the University of Lagos. She is currently a Director with the Federal Civil Service. Udu-Ejembi is married and blessed with children and grandchildren.

Dr. Garba Bala Magaji, born 12^th October 1961, is a graduate of Economics from Ahmadu Bello University and M.Sc. Banking & Finance from the University of Ibadan and Ph.D. Management and Finance from Usman Danfodio University, Sokoto. He was a banker for 8 years and also a Lecturer with the Department of Business Administration, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria for over 12 years. He has attended various local and international workshops and conferences on finance and management and has to his credit over a dozen publications in reputable academic journals and books. He had carried out extensive primary research into major issues of the macro-economic environment, particularly the business and financial sectors. He has participated in numerous Investment, Banking and Finance, Management, Political Economy Analysis and Institutional Capacity Building consultancy assignments for Ahmadu Bello University Consultancy Services (ABUCONS), Guinness Nigeria Plc and Oando PLc as well as with a number of International Programmes and Organisations such as Packard Foundation, World Bank, ENABLE/DFID, SAVI/DFID, GEMS4/DFID, MNCH/DFID among others.