Jaiz Bank Plc, Nigeria’s pioneer Islamic bank, said it has invested N60 billion in MSMEs across the nation.
Managing Director of the Bank, Mr. Hassan Usman, told journalists at a briefing on the bank’s 10th anniversary on Thursday in Abuja, that the bank was able to break even within three years of its operations and has since then maintained a steadied growth.
He stated that the bank invested N75 billion in providing about 3,000 houses and another N60 billion in the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises(MSMEs) with beneficiaries cutting across urban and rural areas nationwide.
His words: “Jaiz as a pioneer has proved that the concept of non-interest banking is workable even in the Nigerian environment. We have more interests now in this sector by individuals and corporate organizations. Even the public sector has embraced the non-interest business model, in order to derive the benefits associated with the system.
Speaking on the rapid growth of the institution, he continued: “Jaiz Bank started with only three branches in 2012. Today, we have more than 45 branches spread across Nigeria. In the first year, the balance sheet was just N12 billion. By the end of 2021, our balance sheet had grown to N300 billion.
“At the beginning, we were more of a corporate banking in terms of our bank’s offering, but now we have diversified the products offering from corporate to SMEs and even in some cases we experimented with micro because of our mission of making life better for Nigerians.
“Over the years, we have experimented with the people at the bottom of the pyramid, especially women, by providing equity type of financing for them to develop their small businesses so that the household income would improve and the welfare of the family be appreciated, with the children of those families benefiting as we see better enrolment of those children in school.”
