Jaiz Bank plc has announced some N794.2 million profits before tax for the 2015 financial year, just as Hassan Usman becomes its substantive managing director, though, subject to the approval of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
The profit before tax (PBT) was much higher than the N126.8 million realiSed in 2014, Umaru Abdul Mutallab, Jaiz Bank chairman, said in Abuja at the company’s fourth annual general meeting.
The company grew its finance income by 47 percent 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 of the year under review closed at N52.6 billion compared with N44.4 billion the preceding year, with gross financing achieving 3 percent growth to N23.8 billion, led by growth in the corporate, retail and business banking segments.
The chairman 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 percent and 39 percent to N15.5 billion and N23.2 billion, respectively.
According to Mutallab, 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 CBN, which will enable it to spread across all the 36 states of the federation.
“In the next five years, I see this bank in every nooks and crannies of this country and other sub-Saharan Africa countries,” Mutallab said.
With the present challenge, inadequate banking services and lack of access to financial services in the sub-Saharan West Africa, the bank intends to champion the funding of small and medium scale enterprises in the region, he said.
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 said 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, and later became a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Nigeria.
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.
