Banking on Africa's Growth: UBA UK CEO Lok Mishra at the Cambridge Africa Business Network Conference

Africa will be built and developed by Africans, and today’s students will be at the centre of that story. This was the message UBA UK CEO Lok Mishra brought to the Cambridge Africa Business Network (CABN) Conference, where he joined the panel “Banking on Africa’s Continental Growth” and spent time speaking directly with students about building careers in finance, technology and entrepreneurship.

From aid to investment

A central theme of the discussion was the shift away from aid and towards investment. Lok Mishra explained how this change is opening up a far wider set of roles for young Africans who want to play a part in the continent’s development. A generation ago, the options were comparatively narrow. Today, the rise of technology and digital innovation has widened the range of careers and opportunities considerably, from financial services to start-ups solving distinctly African challenges.

His advice to students was practical rather than abstract: understand where capital is flowing, build skills that travel across sectors, and look for roles where finance, technology and enterprise meet. It is a view grounded in the reality of a continent whose young population is increasingly seen not as a challenge to be managed, but as one of the world’s great sources of talent and ambition.

Why collaboration matters

Lok Mishra also set out how banks like UBA are working alongside development finance institutions and other partners to channel capital into Africa’s real economy. That includes everything from energy projects to support for small and medium-sized enterprises, the businesses that create jobs and sustain local communities.

His point was straightforward. Talent, ideas and capital each matter, but they achieve far more when brought together at scale. No single institution can do this alone, which is why partnership sits at the heart of UBA’s approach.

A pan-African bank with global reach

These conversations reflect something broader about how UBA Group sees its role. As a truly pan-African institution operating in 20 African countries, with a presence in major financial centres including London, New York, Paris and Dubai, UBA is well positioned to connect international capital with opportunity on the ground across the

continent. Few banks can draw on a network of that breadth, and fewer still combine it with deep local knowledge of the markets they serve.

For UBA, this network is not simply a matter of geography. It is the mechanism through which investment, trade finance and expertise flow into the sectors that underpin long-term growth, from infrastructure and energy to agriculture and the fast-growing digital economy. In many of the markets where it operates, UBA is regarded as one of the most significant contributors to economic development, a position it takes seriously and continues to build on.

Investing in the next generation

Education and youth development are a natural extension of that purpose. With projections suggesting that more than one in four people worldwide will be African by 2050, the continent’s future will be shaped above all by how well today’s young people are equipped to lead. Engagements like the CABN Conference allow UBA to speak directly to that generation, sharing not only career advice but a sense of the possibilities open to them.

It is an approach the Group has long championed, whether through graduate and early-career programmes, support for entrepreneurship, or its wider commitment to building skills and confidence among young Africans. By meeting students where they are, on campuses and at forums such as Cambridge, UBA helps ensure that the people who will build Africa’s future have the tools, networks and self-belief to do so.

Part of UBA UK's wider purpose

For UBA UK and the wider UBA Group, conversations like this are central to what the bank stands for. By combining a pan-African network with a UK base, UBA is well placed to support sustainable growth across the continent and to give the next generation of African leaders the confidence, skills and financial tools they need to lead that change.

Engagements such as the CABN Conference are more than a single afternoon on a panel. They are part of UBA UK’s role in shaping the conversation about Africa’s future and, just as importantly, in inspiring the people who will build it.

As Africa’s global bank, UBA remains committed to standing alongside the students, entrepreneurs and institutions writing the continent’s next chapter.

Banking on Africa’s Growth: UBA UK CEO Lok Mishra at the Cambridge Africa Business Network Conference