By Bassey Udo
Despite challenges posed by the implementation of structural reforms in the country’s financial system by the Central Bnak of Nigeria (CBN), Jaiz Bank said it demonstrated tremendous resilience with superlative performance in its core businesses in the 2024 financial year.
Apart from its most significant achievement of its total asset value crossing the N1trillion threshold with about 86 percent growth, from N580.13billion to N1.081 trillion, the Bank said its profit before tax soared by an extraordinary 121 percent, from N11.05billion in 2023 to N24.44billion during the year.
Speaking during the 13th Annual General Meeting of the Bank held virtually on Wednesday, but monitored in Abuja, the Chairman, Mohammed Bintube, said its performance metrics not only surpassed its projections, they also redefined industry expectations for ethical banking institutions.
He said the highlights of the Bank’s remarkable performance reflects the fundamental strength of its business model and the effectiveness of its strategic initiatives implemented throughout the year.
Further details of the performance of the Bank, he said, showed an unprecedented growth in its revenue generation, with gross earnings expanding by 75 percent, from N47.24 billion to N82.87 billion.
He attributed this to the improvement in the yield from its assets earnings from 13.02 percent to 14.43 percent, and 72 percent growth in investment income.
Besides, the Chairman said the Bank’s deposit base also expanded by about 94 percent to N904.79 billion, indicating a stronger customer confidence in the non-interest banking brand and services.
Despite the positive achievements, Alhaji Bintube noted the associated cost increases as a result of operating expenses, which grew by about 80 percent to N39.31 percent.
He explained that the rising cost was driven by a 55 percent surge in expense-bearing funds, which led to a 92 percent increase in profit pay-outs to funds providers (rising from N11.1billion to N21,28 billion) and inflationary pressures on the Bank’s operations.
On its strategic capital management operations, the Chairman said the Bank successfully concluded a N10.05 billion private placement issuance, which helped in strengthening its capital base to N28.7 billion, above the revised minimum capital requirement of N20 billion set by the CBN.
“This achievement demonstrates strong investors confidence in our business model and growth prospects. The additional capital provides us with greater capacity to finance large ticket transactions and expand our operations, while maintaining healthy capital adequacy ratio,” he said.
On the Bank’s strategic outlook for the future, Bintube said the Bank would focus on implementing several strategic initiatives aimed at sustaining its growth trajectory and enhancing its competitive edge, with digital transformation of its operations to be accorded priority.
Beyond its plan to carry out significant investments in the upgrade of its technological infrastructure and development of innovative digital banking solutions, he said the Bank’s expansion plans include increasing its footprints in underserved markets and development of specialised products for key sectors of the economy.
“We are going to particularly focused on enhancing our offerings for SMEs (small and medium enterprises), agricultural financing and infrastructure development in all areas where our ethical banking model can make significant impact,” he said.
In a post-AGM briefing, the Managing Director of the Bank, Dr. Haruna Musa, the results, which also showed an improvement in the Bank’s cost-to-income ratio to 60.42 percent, from 65.26 percent, were a demonstration of its enhanced operational efficiency.
He said these underscored the Bnak’s unwavering commitment to delivering sustainable value, promoting ethical banking, and supporting Nigeria’s economic development.
While assuring that the Bank remained committed to deepening financial inclusion in the country and beyond, he said it would leverage on technology to serve its customers better, by ensuring that Jaiz Bank continued to set the benchmark for non-interest banking in Africa.
One of the key resolutions during the meeting was the approval by the shareholders of management’s recommendation for the payment of a dividend of 7 kobo per share to all investors.
