United Bank for Africa, the Pan-African banking group, has been listed by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), the global management consulting firm and leading advisor on business strategy, as one of the 40 African Challengers in a pan-African study just released. Of the top 40 African challengers listed in the report, 18 are from South Africa, 7 from Egypt, 6 from Morocco, 2 from Nigeria, with UBA and Dangote being the only Nigerian companies in the list .
 
BCG said ”hidden in plain view, scores of African companies have been competing and rapidly expanding in the global economy. To spot light the economic awakening, we have identified 40 fast growing African companies with global aspirations - the African challengers”.
 
In the extensive study, BCG said “we examined almost 600 companies covering all economic sectors in order to pick the 40 African challengers using criteria such as revenues, growth rates, cash flow, leverage ratio, level of globalization, foreign-based employees, foreign assets and foreign acquisitions and partnerships. The companies we chose as the challengers were those with the most dynamic international presence”.
 
The 40 African challengers range in size from $350 to $80 billion in annual sales and they all display strong growth, an international footprint and ambitious plan to expand overseas.  All were described as having the challenger mindset -  being creative, exhibiting  long term vision and not driven by quick profits in expanding overseas.
 
United Bank for Africa has continued to receive international accolades for it business model and global aspirations. Offering universal banking to more than 7.5 million customer accounts, UBA currently operates in 16 countries including Nigeria, Ghana, Uganda, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Sénégal, Burkina Faso, Gabon, Chad, Benin, Tanzania , Zambia, and Guinea together with presence in New York, London and Paris and is one of Africa’s largest financial services institution.

Dangote on its part is a conglomerate spanning food processing, cement manufacturing and freight. With sales in excess of $2bn, Dangote operates in 9 countries and is the second largest global sugar producer.