Jaiz Bank Posts N794.2m Profit, Appoints New MD

Jaiz Bank Plc on Tuesday declared a profit after tax (PAT) of N794.2 million the for 2015 financial year, representing an increase of 576 percent when compared with N126.8 million recorded in the previous year.

Chairman, Jaiz Bank, Alhaji Umaru Abdul Mutallab said the performance demonstrated continued growth and operational efficiency as the bank’s finance income also grew by 47 percent to N4 billion from N2.72 billion in 2014.

Speaking in Abuja at the bank’s fourth annual general meeting (AGM), he said the bank’s total assets closed at N52.6 billion compared to N44 billion the previous year.

He said customer deposit base further closed at N38.7 billion for the 2015 financial year with current account and customers’ investment account deposits showing strong growth of 43 percent and 39 percent, and valued at N15.5 billion and N23.2 billion respectively.

He said: “In the next five years, I see this bank (Insha Allah) in every nook and cranny of this country and other sub-Saharan African countries. In sub-Saharan West Africa, there’s still the big problem of paucity of banking services. The small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs) do not have adequate access to financial services. So this bank wants to champion the funding of small and medium scale enterprises.”

Also, outgoing Managing Director of the bank, Mr. Mahe Abubakar said the bank had provided financing worth N25.39 billion to 1,507 customers in 2015 from 1,076 customer in 2014.

He added that the bank has had to reduce its expenses to the nearest minimum to mitigate the effect of the difficult business environment, preserving its asset value and increasing income streams to safeguard the interest of shareholders through a robust risk management framework.

He said: “With this major milestone achievement, we face 2016 with a lot of optimism to deliver significant level of profitability that will see us pay dividend by the end of year 2017.”

Meanwhile, the Board of Directors of the bank at its AGM appointed Mr. Hassan Usman as substantive Managing Director to run the affairs of the bank subject to the approval of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
The decision was reached after a rigorous selection exercise where seasoned Islamic bankers within and outside the country were screened and interviewed.

Usman is taking over from Abubakar who had been acting since December 2015. However, Usman is not new to this position as he had previously acted as Managing Director in 2013.

James Emejo in Abuja/Thisday