Leading Nigerian lender, United Bank for Africa (UBA), announced the cumulation of its first, second and third quarter (to September) pretax profit in the year, skyrocketed to 44.86 billion naira ($283 million), almost quadrupling its pretax profit of 9.42 billion naira ($60 million) for the same period in 2011.

The lender, which is one of Nigeria’s top 5 banks,  made the disclosure on Monday at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), reporting increase on all key financial indicators.

Losses incurred from bad debts plunged to 4.7 billion naira ($29.8 million) within the three quarters compared to 11.478 billion naira ($72.8 million) in the similar period of the previous year.

Also, gross earnings within the third quarter rose from 138.5 billion naira ($878 million) to 168.2 billion naira ($1.07 billion).

GMD/CEO of UBA Plc, Mr Phillips Oduoza, commenting on the results, said: “We continue to pursue our unique strategy of maintaining diversified business in terms of geography and earnings mix. In Nigeria , we recorded an impressive growth in deposits and still kept funding costs relatively low despite a spike in interest rates during the third quarter.”

United Bank for Africa (UBA) is a leading pan-African Bank with operations in 19 African countries, New York , London and Paris.