Jaiz Bank asset base hits N11bn

Jaiz Bank, the country’s first and only non-interest bank, which started operations in 2011 has grown its asset base to N11 billion, the Managing Director of bank,  Alh. Mustapha Bintube, has disclosed in Abuja. Bintube said the bank is planning to increase its branch network from the present 10 branches to 25 before the end of the year, adding that with the bank’s current asset base, it would not be difficult for the bank to meet the requirements for a national banking licence. By statutory provision, a bank in Nigeria needs to have a minimum capital base of N25 billion to become a national bank.

The MD said when Jaiz becomes a national bank, it would eventually have branches in all states of the federation, adding that though it is an Islamic bank, the first customers who got loans from the bank were christians.

Bintube observed that the outlook for non-interest banking across the world was very positive.  ”Non-interest banks worldwide grew at about 19 per cent over the last four-year period”, he said.
He adding that: “If you take the overall growth in the banking sector globally, Islamic banking grew 50 per cent more than the conventional banking in terms of deposits and assets. So, in terms of market growth, it grew at about 19 percent but if you compare it to the conventional banks, it grew by 50 per cent. So, if the conventional banks grew to let us say $10 billion, Islamic banks must have grown relatively, to about $20 billion.”
According to him, non-interest banking globally, which posted a total assets base of about $1.3 trillion at the end of 2012 would overtake the conventional banks with assets projected to rise to $2 trillion by 2014.
With this growth rate, Bintube, said, the non-interest banks are now growing at a faster rate than the conventional banks. He said Jaiz Bank was courting customers with attractive products including interest- free loans “since we cannot put our money in the interest bearing treasury bills.”