The Board of Directors of Jaiz Bank Plc has appointed Hassan Usman as the substantive Managing Director of the Bank, however, subject to the approval of the Central Bank.
The appointment was announced on Tuesday in Abuja at the bank’s 4th Annual General Meeting where the bank declared some N794.2 million profit before tax for the year ended December 2015 as against N126.8 million realized in 2014.
Jaiz Bank Chairman, Umaru Abdul Mutallab said at the AGM that the company grew its finance income by 47% to N4 billion in tandem with planned expansion in financing business and as against the preceding year record of N2.72 billion.
Mutallab said the bank’s total assets as at the year under review closed at N52.6 billion compared to N44.4 billion the preceding year, with gross financing achieving 3% growth to stand at N23.8 billion, led by growth in the corporate, retail and business banking segments.
He said the customer deposit base closed at N38.7 billion in 2015, with current account and customers’ investment account deposits showing strong growth of 43% and 39% to N15.5 billion and N23.2 billion respectively.
According to him, the results have demonstrated continued growth and operational efficiency for the bank as he sees the bank gaining more grounds in coming years.
The Bank recently obtained a National Operating License from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). This will enable it to spread across all the 36 states of the Federation.
“In the next five years, I see this bank in every nook and crannies of this country and other sub-Saharan Africa countries,” Mutallab projected.
He disclosed that with the present challenge inadequate banking services and lack of access to financial services in the Sub-Saharan West Africa, Jaiz bank intends to champion the funding of small and medium scale enterprises in the region.
Meanwhile, Usman, the bank’s new Managing Director is taking over from Mahe Abubakar who has been acting since December 2015. He is not new to this position as he had previously acted as Managing Director in 2013.
But the bank sources say he was selected “after a rigorous selection exercise where seasoned Islamic Bankers within and outside the country were screened and interviewed.”
Until the latest appointment, Usman was an Executive Director in charge of Operations and IT. A trained Accountant, Usman graduated with a first class Degree in Accounting in 1985 from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria and later became a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Nigeria (ICAN).
He obtained his Post Graduate Diploma in Management in 1995 from Maastricht School of Management.
Usman also attended the Oxford University Advanced Management Programme in 2002. He worked as the Financial Controller of New Nigerian Development Company Limited, Kaduna (NNDC) until he joined NAL Merchant Bank PLC where he served as the Financial Controller and Treasurer respectively between 1996-2001.
Usman had a brief stint with Inland Bank where he served as General Manager, Banking Services before re-joining NAL Bank as Deputy General Manager and Head Business and Financial Advisory Group
