Uche Usim, Abuja

Despite the crushing effects of the COVID-19 pestilence on the economy, Jaiz Bank Plc, on Sunday, said it has promoted 216 staff while193 staff got step-wise notch increment as part of its tradition of rewarding and motivating employees for higher productivity.

The bank, in a statement, said the exercise follows the successful conclusion of the 2019 appraisal, even as it expressed hope of a good operational outing in 2020 in spite of the COVID-19 challenges.

The promotion cuts across all departments and grades, including senior, middle and junior cadre staff.

Managing Director/Chief Executive of the Bank, Hassan Usman, said 409 staff benefited from the exercise as part of plans towards securing a vibrant workforce of the future for the bank.

‘The management wants the Bank to continue to remain a great place to work for all staff, and to make it easier for them to do what they do best-delighting our numerous customers,’ he explained.

Usman stressed that there is a correlation between the performance-based incentives recently approved by the board and the overall performance of the bank in 2019.

Related News

He further described 2019 as a good year for the bank and noted that plans were afoot to achieve the feat in 2020.

The Jaiz Bank boss also revealed that Islamic banking worldwide has remarkably grown by 15 per cent.

On the performance of the Bank, Usman said in the last four years, the balance sheet growth has been consistent at about 50 per cent, closing the year 2019 at about N162bn billion which is more than 50 per cent growth.

‘Similarly, if you look at our earnings, 2018 we had less than N9 billion as earnings by the end of 2019 we had almost N15 billion which is almost 65 per cent growth. On profitability, we closed 2018 at about N900 million in profit and by the end of 2019 we closed at N2.1 billion in profitability, which means over a 100 per cent growth.’

According to him, Islamic financing was growing because large numbers of people are interested in it due to its ethical requirements to avoid interest.

He added that all Nigerians are qualified to open an account with the bank.

‘We maintain the usual current and savings accounts for normal transactions and deposit account where the customers provide equity to the bank for trading with profit or loss sharing,’ he stated.