Uche Usim, Abuja
Jaiz Bank Plc, Nigeria’s premier non-interest bank has released its 2018 operating results, indicating that its total customer deposit grew by 25% from N68 billion in 2017 to N85 billion in 2018.
The bank’s total comprehensive income for 2018 stands at N946.678 million as against N537.117 million recorded in 2017.
Its total equity and liabilities also grew to N108,462, 458 from N87,312,609.
The Managing Director of the bank, Mr Hassan Usman made the disclosure at the 7th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the bank in Abuja on Wednesday.
According to him, the bank also recorded positive growth in its income after tax that grew from N537 million in 2017 to N834 million in 2018.
He said: “A stellar increment of 25% was recorded for balance sheet size in 2018 to N109 billion. It is encouraging to note that in the past few years, it has been growing steadily at a double-digit rate of 20%.
“Income-generating assets grew by 37% from N50.64 billion in December 2017, to N69.18 billion by December 2018”, he said.
On shareholders call for opening of new branches, Usman said such an endeavour requires strategic studies, planning and execution.
“Opening of new branches is dependent on several factors to ensure it’s viable and sustainable. We’re not just going to open a branch for opening sake.
“We carry out sustainability analysis and ensure it will deliver services as designed”, he added.
On dividend payment, the Jaiz Bank CEO said the management looks forward to commence dividend payment in 2020.
“2019 looks better than 2018 and we look forward to paying dividends by 2020. As a pioneer for seven years, we hope more players will come in and collaborate with us.
“We have had our share of challenges as a pioneer non-interest bank”.
Earlier in his remarks, the Chairman of the bank, Dr Umaru Abdul Muttalab said the company’s performance last year was a direct reflection of the viability of its business model that is people-driven.
“I’m happy that 2018 marked the fifth consecutive year of our bank’s income.
“The board had tried to recommend the payment of dividend for the reporting period but the feedback from regulators meant it was not possible until we improve upon some specific performance benchmarks such as our capital buffers and reduction in non-performing risk assets.
“This year, we are working assiduously towards ensuring that the bank meets all those regulatory requirements for dividend payment in order to meet our aspiration of dividend payouts to shareholders”, he stated.
Also speaking at the event, a shareholder, Alhaji Mukhtar Mukhtar urged the bank management to work hard to ensure shareholders were paid dividends in 2020.
“We hope this will be realized next year. Again, this is seven years of the existence of this bank and we should be far above our peers in the contemporary banking space because we have tremendous opportunities they don’t have.
“We should be more aggressive and work with states with bad roads to raise Sukuk for them. We should meet states and sell these ideas to them. With these, we will balloon the liquidity and stability of the bank” he stated.