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Jaiz Bank Plc plans to grow its domestic home market share and explore opportunities in other countries to become one of the three leading non-interest banks in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) in the next five years.
Managing Director, Jaiz Bank Plc, Mr. Hassan Usman, who spoke at a media parley in Lagos, said the bank was investing heavily in technology and expanding its nationwide branch network across the six geopolitical zones to accelerate growth and enhance engagement with customers.
Usman spoke against the background of the commissioning of the latest branch of the bank last week in Akure, Ondo State by Governor Rotimi Akeredolu.
The management of the bank also at the weekend released its forecasts for the second quarter, with profit before tax expected at N1.73 billion within the three-month period ended June 30, 2022.
The three-month forecasts for the second quarter ending June 30, 2022 indicated that the bank plans to achieve gross earnings of N9.15 billion in second quarter 2022 with net operating incomes of N5.88 billion. Profits before and after tax are projected at N1.73 billion and N1.56 billion.
Usman said the bank remains determined to be a major player in the non-interest banking in SSA and would continue to explore partnership opportunities with fintechs to present its unique products and services to customers across the SSA.
“We have virtually all the channels that any conventional bank has, we have internet banking, mobile banking, USSD, POS and ATMs.
“What we are doing now is to see how we can strengthen these channels, expand the capability to have more partnership and strategic relationship with fintech institutions that can support the next phase of our growth and trajectory,” Usman said.
According to him, the bank is currently working with fintechs to strengthen and expand its digital channels as a non interest-banking group to support next phase of its growth trajectory.
“We want to remain on top of the chart in non-interest banking sector in Africa. We want to be a leader in Sub-Saharan Africa. We are adopting strategies to get to other sub-Saharan African countries,” Usman said.
He assured that the bank would continue to support small businesses with working capital and funding for growth and expansion.
He pointed out that 20 to 25 per cent of the bank’s portfolio is made up of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
He explained that the economy needed financial institutions to support the growth of small businesses.
“We have an ever-growing young population coming with opportunities and the next phase of development for Nigeria is not about people looking for employment, but people becoming employers of labour to grow the economy.
“That’s why we are focusing on SMEs to empower people in order to remain a peaceful nation for growth and development of the economy,” Usman said.
He however noted that for a bank to meet the aspirations of customers in the current milieu, such bank must invest heavily in technology, adding that this understanding explains Jaiz Bank’s investments in technology.
He added that the bank was poised to consolidate and create more resilient digital channels with annual growth rate of 40 per cent and a balance sheet of N300 billion at the end of 2021 financial year.
On the challenges in the industry, he said the bank’s major challenge in the first five years was absence of the needed infrastructure to support non-interest bank.
He said lack of awareness of the non-interest product was another challenge experienced at beginning.
Usman said the bank had overcome the challenges and would welcome more players in the industry.
