Abuja – The Chairman of Jaiz Bank, Alhaji Umaru Mutallab on Monday said the bank recorded a profit before tax of N794.2 million in 2015 as against N126.8 million recorded in 2014.
Mutallab made this known at the Fourth Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Bank in Abuja.
The chairman said the 526 per cent growth in profit demonstrated a continued growth and operational efficiency of the bank.
He said the finance income showed an increase of 47 per cent to N4.0 billion against the preceding year of N2.72 billion in tandem with the expansion in financing business.
“Total assets closed at N52.6 billion compared to N44.4 billion in 2014, with Gross Financing achieving three per cent growth to stand at N23.8 billion growth in corporate, retail and business banking.
“The customer deposit base closed at N38.8 billion for 2015, with current account and customer’s investment account deposits showing strong growth of N15.5 billion and N23.2 billion respectively.
He expressed optimism that with the national licence by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the bank would be able to spread its branches across all states of the federation.
According to him, the goal of the bank is to ensure financial inclusion for everyone and be able to finance and support communities in every way possible by improving their living standards.
“We see Jaiz bank becoming the dominant non-interest Islamic financial service provider along Sub-Saharan Africa.’’
He explained that the challenges by the bank however, were peculiar because the entire concept of Non-Interest Islamic Finance was new to majority of Nigerians.
Mutallab said this was not strange considering the diversity of the nation and the various religious inclinations.
He, however, said the way forward was to educate and create awareness among various demographics and beliefs to enable people understand the concept and see the benefits.
The chairman pledged the banks’ commitment to continue to build a solid foundation for sustainable profitability and value creation for shareholders.
Mr Mahe Abubakar, acting Managing Director of Jaiz Bank attributed the improved profit before tax of the bank to hard work by the management.
He said the bank’s total income grew from N2.9 billion in 2014 to N4.421 billion in 2015, standing at about 53 per cent increase in income.
“The financing assets also grew by 18 per cent while deposits leaped by 41 per cent during the period ended Dec. 31.
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Abubakar explained that the bank increased investments on technology to meet up the requirements for continuity and ensured reduction of expenses to the barest minimum in 2015.
He said,“ through robust risk management framework the bank was able to preserve asset value and increase income streams to safeguard the interest of shareholders.
“Our customer’s commitment remained strong both across our retail and corporate banking segments and we provided finance to 1,507 customers against 1,076 who benefited in 2014 amounting to N25.398 billion,’’ he said.
He expressed the hope that the bank would be able to pay dividend to shareholders by the end of 2017.
Also speaking, some shareholders present at the AGM expressed satisfaction at the giant stride attained by the bank, urging the management not to relent.
Mr William Adebayo, a shareholder, said,“we are happy that the shareholders funds have increased and the wealth of the bank has grown but the bank needs to improve on its corporate governance.’’
Another shareholder, Dr Farouk Umar also urged the bank to improve on its expenses by cutting down its excesses.
He also urged the management not to allow the bank to be over regulated. (NAN)
