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Customer Service Is Key To Our Success – Mr. Ade Adebajo, MD/CEO, UT Financial Services

Published

7 years ago

June 15, 2019

Eric

By: Michael Effiong

Ten years ago, a new non-bank financial institution, UT Financial Services Limited berthed in Nigeria.

The company which had earlier operated in Ghana wanted to extend its track record of excellence to Nigeria and it has been an exciting journey so far according to MD/CEO, Mr Ade Adebajo.

According to him, the journey so far has been very tremendous and good, “we’ve had lot of victories. As with everything in life, you have the good and bad times, we have had recession times in this country but all through, UT financial was able to navigate the tide and still standing where others fell”.

He continued “There was a transition of management just about 2 years ago, even at the time, I was in the United Kingdom, I had my own company Crusader Financial services but we decided to come and buy into UT. We have become stronger as a brand, when we combine our efforts with those of the people of Ghana and the ethics that were laid down, that transition was very smooth and very excellent.

He noted that the founder, Prince Kofi Amoabeng, is a man of very strong ethics, principled, a visionary leader, adding that having built a built a strong brand, they met a strong foundation on ground.

Adebajo revealed that the environment of the company is friendly and that “our culture and has helped in impacting a lot on the staff and clients.

He continued “We are a company that cares, that is how we are seen, how we have trained our staff and the way we operate at UT. We make sure to always be customer focused.

As expected, the company rolled out the drums to mark this momentous occasion. It was days later that we had this interview with Mr Adebajo over drinks at Raddison Blu Hotel, GRA, Ikeja.

Congratulations on your 10th anniversary, how has the journey so far been?

UT financial started 10 years ago in Nigeria, it came originally from Ghana, they wanted to have a branch of their bank here but it came as a non-bank financial institution; so, they ran it well and developed it with good culture, the ethics was good as well.

But at a point in time, they felt they needed Nigerian partners to move things forward, you know you get to a certain level and especially it is not your own place, you need local participation to move things forward.

I was in UK as a Nigerian running a successful firm; so, they approached me and I decided to buy into the company and I looked at the books and everything was good, and this was just about 3 years ago.

When we bought into the company, of course we became partners but I took over management having taken the majority share of the company since then it has been a very smooth sailing.

What really helped was that I met good things on ground, the staff were good, the culture I met on ground was very strong, there was professionalism among the staff and even the books were good.

We have moved on now steadily, we have started a branch in Abuja, opened another in Victoria Island, there was a branch in Yaba. And then, we have expanded in terms size and staff.

So, UT has really grown over these years and we have been able to recover a lot of loans that were outstanding prior to our takeover. Thank God that the journey has been very good so far.

What will you say were the challenges that you faced when you took over?

There are always challenges, over the past few years in Nigeria, Nigeria went through a period of recession, a lot of finance houses closed down but what we did at that time was we actually worked on our expenditure and our cost.

We reduced it, we downsized a lot of things, we had to adapt to the situation of things that we found our self; so, once we did that, we were in a comfortable position and then we began to look outside for other avenues to make revenue apart from what UT was normally used to. And that gave birth to UT Homes and a few other things; so we have UT and we expanded our income streams.

We looked at small and medium enterprises that we could support and helped them which turned out in our favour.

Ok, you talked about a lot of financial houses that went under, so what would you say is unique about UT?

What is very unique about UT? First and foremost, our products are very good, very competitive but products alone cannot sustain a company but culture of a company with professionalism of its staff on how to treat your clients because remember that in all, the client is key,

When the clients are happy with you, you will flourish. For example, in the recession period, we went to some of our clients and told them that we have to vary the rates we offered and explained that if we continue with this rate we will go under, they understood.

That was able to happen because we have built trust in our client.

But if we had shown panic and they saw we cannot survive, they would have left us.

Our strength is that we do not joke with customer service. They know that we care. That is the unique thing about us.

You must build good relationship with your clients, we had a caring relationship, most of our clients even after they had finished servicing their loans and whatever transactions, we go on our own and ask after their welfare to know if there is anything we can do again, that is one of the things that distinguishes this company.

You mentioned your products 2weso what are the different products that you offer?

We have various products tailored to different desires, School Fees for those who are saving towards their children school fees, we have a product for that, we have for people with small businesses looking to start a business, we have a saving plan that is geared towards getting a house, we look at your whole investment and then from that we determine which product can be affordable, we also launched another product on our 10th anniversary which is the Unique Investment Plus, it comes with an amount of money 500,000 minimum, we have lower ones but this particular one is 500,000 minimum and then we give you an extra on top of our usual interest, there is a bonus of 2%, this is just for the 10th anniversary and it will last for 3 months and I will advise that people take up this opportunity while it still there.

The offer is one of the best in the market in terms of rates. We used it to celebrate how good God has been to UT.

We also have other products for people who are set towards enjoying a holiday.

Our rate like I keep saying is the best in the market and it is the reason why people come to us.

I am interested in the future of UT, where do you see UT going at 15?

In the next five years, I see UT as a major non-banking financial institution in Nigeria, and I am saying this because we are planning towards it, already we are climbing towards there and we are introducing new products, and we are also looking at our products and improve them for the Nigeria public, we are spending a lot on technology so that people can invest and also we are developing an app so that people can also use and push UT further.

In the next five years, we hope to increase investor’s confidence. If we have investor confidence, a lot of things can be achieved.

We are 10 years today and nobody can say he knocked at our doorway and we did not pay them their money, it is a good testimony, by the time we now add all this new things with the level of training that we are giving our staff now, in the next five years I see UT as a major force in Nigeria and Africa, and when we say 10 years, I’m looking at a bank in Nigeria.

Headline

Supreme Court Reserves Judgment in Appeal over Nullified PDP Convention

Published

14 hours ago

April 22, 2026

Eric

The Supreme Court has reserved its judgment in the appeal filed by the Taminu Turaki-led group of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) seeking to overturn the judgment of the Court of Appeal, which nullified the conduct of the party’s national convention, held last year in Ibadan, Oyo State.

A five-member panel of the apex court announced on Wednesday that its judgment would be delivered on a date to be communicated to all parties in the appeal.

Justice Garba Mohammed, who led the five-member panel, made the announcement shortly after lawyers representing parties in the appeal adopted their processes as briefs of their arguments for and against the appeal.

The appeal was filed by the Turaki-led group’s national executives of the party who emerged from the convention.

They had approached the apex court to challenge the judgment of the Court of Appeal, which had nullified the convention for being held in disobedience of a valid order of the court.

While adopting their brief of argument filed on April 2, the appellants, through their team of lawyers led by Paul Erokoro (SAN), urged the Supreme Court not only to allow their appeal but also to dismiss a cross-appeal lodged against them by a leadership group in the party aligned with the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike.

Meanwhile, Lamido, who was represented by J. C. Njikonye (SAN), as well as the Wike-backed group represented by Joseph Daudu (SAN), filed preliminary objections seeking dismissal of the appeal.

The respondents insisted that, contrary to the contention by the Turaki-led group, the appeal did not fall within the sphere of the PDP’s internal affairs.

It was the respondents’ position that both the high court and the appellate court had rightly exercised jurisdiction over the matter.

Justice Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court in Abuja, in a judgment last year, restrained the then-Ambassador Iliya Damagum-led National Executive Committee of the PDP from proceeding with the convention slated for November 15 and 16, 2026, in Ibadan, Oyo State.

Justice Lifu had ordered that the convention should not hold until an aspirant to the office of national chairman, former Jigawa State Governor Sule Lamido, is allowed to purchase interest and nomination forms to enable him to participate in the convention for the election of national officers.

The party, however, went ahead to conduct the convention in disregard of the orders of the court.

The PDP had predicated its action to conduct the convention on the grounds that the court lacked the jurisdiction to stop the convention, as the issue brought before it was an internal matter of the PDP, which no court has jurisdiction to delve into.

However, the appellate court in its judgment last month disagreed that the issue at the trial court was an internal affair of a political party, which courts cannot entertain.

The three-member panel of the appellate court subsequently nullified the outcome of the convention for being held in disobedience to the orders of the Federal High Court, Abuja.

Dissatisfied, the PDP approached the apex court, praying it to accept the appeal against the lower court judgment, set the judgment aside, and hold that the issue was an internal matter of the PDP, which both the Court of Appeal and the Federal High Court lacked jurisdiction to entertain.

However, the respondents in the appeal urged the court to dismiss the appeal for lack of merit and hold otherwise.

Headline

LP: Nenadi Usman Floors Julius Abure at Appeal Court

Published

2 days ago

April 21, 2026

Eric

The Court of Appeal in Abuja has dismissed the appeal filed by Julius Abure challenging the legitimacy of the Nenadi Usman-led leadership of the Labour Party (LP).

A three-member panel of the appellate court, in a Tuesday judgment, unanimously affirmed the January 21 judgment by Justice Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court in Abuja, which upheld the legitimacy of the 29-member caretaker committee of the LP, led by Senator Usman.

In the lead judgment delivered by Justice Oyejoju Oyewumi, which Justices Abba Mohammed and Eberechi Nyesom-Wike agreed with, the appellate court held that the earlier Supreme Court judgment conclusively settled the leadership dispute within the LP by nullifying the convention that purportedly returned Abure as National Chairman.

Justice Lifu had, in the January 21 judgment, relied on an April 4, 2025, decision of the Supreme Court, which held that Abure’s tenure as the party’s National Chairman had expired. The judgment directed the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to recognize Senator Usman and other members of her committee as the legitimate leaders of the party, to the exclusion of all others.

The court further held that the lower court had the power under Section 251 of the Constitution to compel a statutory Federal government agency to perform its functions when it ordered INEC to recognize Senator Nenadi Usman as the National Chairman of the Labour Party.

It was equally agreed with the trial court that constituting the LP’s caretaker committee, headed by Usman, was a doctrine of necessity required to provide leadership in the party when a vacuum appeared to exist.

The court faulted Abure’s claim that the trial court denied him a fair hearing and accused him of abusing the court process.

The court also accused Abure of forum shopping by appearing before the Nasarawa State High Court in a case already decided by the Supreme Court, and of persisting in the claim the party’s leadership despite the apex court’s clear and unambiguous pronouncement.

It held that the appeal, marked: CA/ABJ/CV/255/2026, was devoid of merit and constituted an abuse of court process.

“On the whole, I agree with the decision and conclusion of the trial court as the same, being in accordance with the Constitution,” Justice Oyewumi held, adding that the lower court reached a reasonable conclusion that the Court of Appeal cannot fault.

While dismissing the appeal, the court awarded him costs of N10 million for wasting the court’s time on an issue that had already been conclusively determined.

Earlier, the court held that Nenadi Usman, as a juristic person, had the right to file the case before the trial court, and that the trial court had jurisdiction to hear and determine the case.

The court also rejected Abure’s allegation that the lower court denied him a fair hearing, noting that the claim lacked any basis.

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Tinubu Sacks Edun, Appoints Oyedele As Finance Minister

Published

2 days ago

April 21, 2026

Eric

President Bola Tinubu has approved a minor cabinet reshuffle in the membership of the Federal Executive Council (FEC).

According to a memo signed by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator George Akume, two cabinet members, Mr. Wale Edun and Arc. Ahmed Musa Dangiwa are to leave the cabinet while their replacements have been named.

A statement signed by the Special Adviser, Media and Publicity to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Yomi Odunuga, on Tuesday evening, said Edun, until the latest development, was the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy.

“He has been directed to hand over to Mr. Taiwo Oyedele, who is now to take over as Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy. Oyedele was formerly a Minister of State in the ministry.

“Also Mr. Muttaqha Rabe Darma (PhD.) has been named as the ministerial nominee and minister-designate for the Housing and Urban Development Ministry,” Odunuga stated.

The memo also directed Dangiwa to hand over to the Minister of State in the ministry pending Darma’s confirmation.

The memo stated that “all handing over and taking over processes should be completed on or before close of business on Thursday 23rd April, 2026.”

Explaining the President’s decision, Odunuga quoted Akume as saying: “These changes are aimed at strengthening cohesion, synergy in governance as well as achieving more impactful delivery on the economy to Nigerians, through the Renewed Hope Agenda.”

He said the President, in approving the cabinet reshuffle, has fully exercised his powers as conferred on him by Sections 147 and 148 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (1999, as amended).

The President thanked the outgoing ministers for their services to the nation while wishing them the best in all their future endeavours.

The President, Akume noted, equally assured all cabinet members that “the process of reinvigoration shall be continuous.”