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Dr. Patricia Ojangole, Managing Director of Uganda Development Bank (UDB)has been named Banker of the Year at the prestigious African Banker Awards.
Dr. Ojangole was announced at the 19th African Banker Awards ceremony, held Wednesday at Sofitel Hotel in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, during the African Development Bank Annual Meetings.
The Banker of the Year Award recognises an influential and inspirational leader in the African banking sector whose leadership and vision have driven strong financial performance over the past year, successfully guiding their institution to new heights in the industry.
“The judging committee looked for an individual of outstanding integrity, someone who has managed to articulate a clear vision for his/her institution and who has managed to ensure his/her bank is playing an active role in enhancing socio-economic empowerment and development within the community his/her institution operates in,” the citation for the Award category states.
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Recipients of this prestigious award exhibit inspirational leadership, demonstrate novel best business practices, expand into new markets, are innovative in terms of new services and adaption of new technologies for customer convenience and protection mechanisms.
“It gives me great honour to receive this recognition. This Award is a foundation for me to advance Africa's development agenda leveraging tailored financial solutions that respond to the needs of Africans in a sustainable manner,” Dr. Ojangole said of the recognition.
She added: “This is a testament of hard work, resilience, consistence and commitment to serve the region.”
For 2025, awardees paid keen attention to leadership in terms of helping empower women (through lending to women-led businesses and by promoting women to positions of leadership) as well as helping to extend credit to the real economy – namely SMEs.
In the category ‘Banker of the Year’, Dr. Ojangole was nominated alongside Abdulmajid Mussa Nsekela, Managing Director of CRDB Bank Plc; Jeremy Awori, CEO of Ecobank; Karim Awad, Group CEO EFG Holding; Léon Konan Koffi, CEO of AFG Holding; Mukwandi Chibesakunda, CEO of Zanaco Inc; and Sidi Ould Tah, President of the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa.
Speaking at the ceremony, Omar Ben Yedder, chair of the Awards Committee identified the private sector and banks as critical to transforming the continent.
“Thomas Sankara said the ones that feed you, rule you. To paraphrase him, we could easily say the ones that finance you, rule you. We need strong African-owned banks. The private sector is the key to unlocking scale, and banks are the fuel for driving Africa forward. African DFIs have won big because of the catalytic role they are playing in transforming the investment landscape as well as working more closely with the African private sector to support SMEs and other asset classes that are underfunded,” said Yedder.
UDB was one of only six among the development finance institutions operating in Africa that were awarded, the others being; Trade and Development Bank Group (TDB Group), African Trade & Investment Development Insurance (ATIDI), Afreximbank, Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) and Bank of Industry (BOI).