UBA’s Emmanuel Lamptey urges collective action to bridge Africa’s education financing gap at ADEA Triennale 2025

The Group Chief Operating Officer of UBA Africa participated as a panellist at the 2025 ADEA Triennale on Education and Training in Africa, held at the Labadi Beach Hotel in Accra.

The Triennale is one of Africa’s leading forums for dialogue on how to transform education systems to drive sustainable development.

Speaking during the panel, themed “Financing Education – Perspectives from Policymakers and Industry Leaders,” Mr Lamptey underscored that investing in education is about developing capacity for problem-solving, productivity improvement, creativity, and resilience, which are critical for driving Africa’s growth.

“Quality education helps to achieve long-term value creation and sustainable economic growth and development for African economies and success for banks.”

He highlighted the importance of an enabling regulatory environment and the right tax incentives to tap into large pools of domestic funds from pension and insurance to support financing for education.

He added that, “Beyond loan facilities to educational institutions and the education value chain and individuals, UBA has digital platforms for loans and school fees collections as well as Kiddies Savings Account to help parents save towards the education of children.

“The bank also partners with international organisations to support financing SMEs in the education sector and SMEs set up by women.”

He also highlighted initiatives by United Bank for Africa, such as the Read Africa Project – to promote reading culture through books to schools across 20 countries, as well as grants and scholarships to students.

He said, “The UBA Foundation has donated thousands of books on the continent through this initiative, ensuring that we can help in the holistic development of the African youth in education”.

He added that UBA has invested nearly $300million to support students across Africa to access tertiary education through educational grants.

Emmanuel Lamptey also commended the Tony Elumelu Foundation for their support for the youth of Africa through grants to expand entrepreneurship and growth of Africa, ensuring that we can truly develop Africa, utilising our own resources in Africa.

Emmanuel stressed financial institutions must actively partner with the various stakeholders, such as governments, regulators, and local and international organisations, to create innovative financing solutions to support consistent funding for education. Investment in education is a win for all stakeholders.

In his closing points, he emphasised the importance of collaboration among stakeholders, strong governance structures as part of innovative financing solutions and harmonisation of banking and capital regulations across the continent.

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