By Yakubu LAAH InvestAdvocate

Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-Africa’s top lender, United Bank for Africa Plc (UBA) on Thursday said it’s planning to expand its operations to Angola and South Africa, a Bloomberg report quoted Phillips Oduoza as saying from Davos, Switzerland at the World Economic Forum (WEF). `

According to the report, this is coming on the heels of sliding oil prices. “I don’t expect oil prices or the Nigerian currency to continue their decline,” Oduoza said.

The UBA CEO affirmed that Nigerian companies and the bank are “adequately protected” against a drop in the value of the naira and the price of oil. “The currency of Africa’s largest economy and crude producer probably won’t be devalued further and loan defaults are unlikely to increase, he added.

 “We have done quite a lot of hedging and we have applied various financial products to make sure that the bank is adequately protected,” Oduoza said.

He further affirmed the naira is finding its realistic value, “I do not think you are going to see any major devaluation, if at all it is going to happen,” the UBA CEO noted.