The pioneer Non-Interest Bank in Nigeria, Jaiz Bank Plc has clocked 10 years as it started operations on 6th of January 2012 and has grown its assets and contingents to N278 billion so far.
A statement released yesterday recalled that the bank started with three branches in Abuja, Kaduna and Kano. As a pioneer non-interest bank, it broke even within the first three years while raising its balance sheet of N12bn in 2012 to N278bn as of 2020 financial year.
“Through its unique value proposition, Jaiz Bank has, within a decade, made remarkable impact in empowering women, driving financial inclusion and supporting various strata of businesses in the real sector of the economy, agriculture, real estate, construction, oil & gas, general commerce, etc.
“Within this period, the bank was rated by the Islamic International Rating Agency (IIRA), assigning it an investment grade rating of BBB. Most recently, the bank also got an upgrade from both Agusto and GCR to BBB and BBB- respectively with stable outlook.”
The statement also said Fitch also did its first rating of the institution, and it came out at the same impressive level. The bank gained international recognition as it won the Most Improved Islamic Bank award for 2020 and 2021 consecutively from the Global Islamic Finance Awards (GIFA), among other accolades.
Commenting on the 10th anniversary of the bank, the Managing Director/CEO, Hassan Usman, thanked Allah (The Creator of all), then the regulators, customers, board, management, staff and other stakeholders for their tremendous support.
He said: “Today, our bank officially clocks ten years since it first opened its doors to customers on the 6th of January 2012. The journey was much like a roller coaster – you experience some degree of fear at the onset, but subsequently excitement takes over when the carriage takes off and you feel that euphoria of defying the odds of gravity.
“We are happy to pioneer an industry that was not there; creating confidence for other people to come in; and we believe that we’ve done that very well. The year 2022 is special to us as it marks a decade of progress in our Islamic banking journey and I am extremely fulfilled for the opportunity of leading the team for a larger part of the journey,” Usman noted.
He further stated that in 2021, analysts at Nairametrics adjudged the bank as the fastest growing among the listed banks in Nigeria (39.3% growth in Total Assets, based on December 2020 results) as well as the 4th most efficient based on Return on Equity (17.4%). According to the international annual ranking by “The Asian Banker” (A Singapore-based leading provider of strategic intelligence on the financial services industry), Jaiz Bank ranks 36th on the World’s strongest Islamic Banks as at 2021.
“We remain true to our Vision by building the second largest non-interest bank in Sub-Saharan Africa in just 10 years. The bank is poised to leverage on its’ market acceptance and continue to innovate in order to consistently deliver superior customer experience in the dynamic business environment, hence maintaining its clear leadership in the non-interest banking space,” noted Usman.