United Bank for Africa has reinforced its commitment to innovation, youth empowerment, and education with the commissioning of the UBA Innovation Hub and Business Office at University of Lagos.
The facility was commissioned by Tony Elumelu, Group Chairman of UBA, represented by Oliver Alawuba, Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of the bank, alongside members of the university’s leadership led by Vice Chancellor, Professor Folasade Tolulope Ogunsola.
The project highlights UBA’s long-standing relationship with UNILAG and Nigeria’s education sector.
Tony Elumelu, an alumnus of the university, described the development as both symbolic and strategic.
“Returning to my alma mater for this commissioning makes this moment particularly meaningful. Universities remain the birthplace of ideas, innovation, and future leadership. Through this investment, UBA is reaffirming its belief in young people and in the role institutions like the University of Lagos will continue to play in shaping Africa’s future,” he said.
He added that UBA’s philosophy of empowering people and building institutions remains central to its growth strategy across Africa.
Professor Folasade Tolulope Ogunsola, Vice Chancellor of UNILAG, praised UBA for sustaining a relationship rooted in impact, innovation, and institutional support.
“The Group Chairman of UBA, Tony Onyemaechi Elumelu, one of Africa’s most celebrated entrepreneurs and philanthropists, is, in the truest and most meaningful sense, a son of this University,” Ogunsola said.
She added: “The intellectual rigour, ambition, and broadness of vision that he later demonstrated in transforming a struggling bank into a pan-African institution of global stature were sharpened here.”
The newly commissioned four-floor complex is designed as a shared platform to strengthen collaboration between academia and industry. Under the arrangement, UBA will operate a dedicated Business Office within the facility, providing innovative banking services, financial advisory support, enterprise development opportunities, and engagement platforms for students, faculty members, and the wider university community.
The remaining floors will serve broader institutional and developmental purposes for the university.
Oliver Alawuba, Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of UBA, said the Innovation Hub and Business Office represent a deliberate investment in talent, enterprise, and economic transformation.
“UBA continues to create platforms that connect knowledge with opportunity. This facility will provide students and the university community access to ideas, networks, innovation support, and financial services that help unlock potential and prepare future leaders for a rapidly changing world,” he said.
In another major highlight of the event, UNILAG announced the renewal of UBA’s sponsorship of the Professorial Chair in Finance, further strengthening collaboration between academia and industry while promoting research and thought leadership in financial studies.
Alawuba noted that the UBA Professorial Chair remains the bank’s most enduring academic contribution.
“Our most enduring academic contribution remains the UBA Professorial Chair of Finance, established in January 1972 as the first-ever Finance Professorial Chair in a Nigerian university,” he said.
According to him, the initiative was created to strengthen finance education, deepen banking research, and support thought leadership within Nigeria’s financial sector.
He disclosed that UBA’s Executive Management has approved an additional N61.67 million to strengthen the endowment fund and sustain the programme through the current professorship tenure.
The commissioning of the UBA Innovation Hub and Business Office reflects the bank’s broader strategy of supporting sustainable development through investments in education, entrepreneurship, technology, and human capital development across Africa.
