L -R: Acting Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Babatunde Odumosu; Chief Compliance Officer of TAJBank, Mr Saheed Ekeolere; the Executive Director, Mr. Sherif Idi; the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Hamid Joda; the Group Head, Shariah Unit, Mr. Usama Saleh; the Deputy Chief Risk Officer, Mr. Kamoru Adeyemi; and the Group Head, Marketing Communications, Mr. Taiwo Oluwafemi; at a briefing on the issuance of National Licence to TAJBank by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Wednesday in Abuja

Nigeria’s non-interest banking institution, TAJBank Limited,  has secured the approval for nationwide banking operations from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

The license is coming on the heels of several awards bagged by the bank in the past two years of operations in recognition of its outstanding banking services, including three International Standards Organisation (ISO) certifications for its commitment to customer safety assurance, service excellence and business operations resilience prioritization.

Speaking on the national licence issued to the bank by the Apex bank during a media chat on Wednesday in Abuja, the bank’s managing director/CEO, Hamid Joda, described it “as another feat achieved by the Bank to leverage on our cutting-edge and impressive products and service delivery scorecards and by so doing, make TAJBank the preferred choice in non-interest banking operations at the grassroots in the country.

“We want to thank the regulatory authorities for issuing a national licence as well as the growing number of our customers who are yearning to see us give them the best in non-interest banking services, especially at the grassroots and throughout the country.

“I want to assure them that with the latest approval by the authorities, we will deploy all human and technological resources to their doorsteps and give real meaning to the National Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS) by bringing world class non-interest banking products and services to their doorsteps for growth and prosperity”, Joda assured.

Attributing TAJBank’s impressive performances over the past two years to innovativeness in key areas of customer-centric service delivery powered by world-class technologies and solutions, human resource capacity building and shareholders and customers’ growing confidence, the CEO said the national license would help in growing the bank’s agency network to 25,000 by 2025, thereby reducing the financial exclusion rate.

It would be recalled that TAJBank’s management had last month unveiled plans to launch Nigeria’s first private sector Sukuk offering under a N100 billion programme under a Mudarabah structure, thereby marking a historic shift from government-dominated Sukuk offerings to a fully private sector-oriented offering in the Nigerian debt markets.

Commenting on the national licence issuance to the non-interest lender, the bank’s executive director, Sherif Idi enthused: “We are very excited to achieve this feat, especially when the potential benefits to our customers and the nation’s economy cannot be quantified in socio-economic terms.

For us, it is a call for more services to millions of Nigerians, who are desirous of having access to credit without pains. Let me say it loud, we shall not disappoint them on this expectation.”