The Managing Director/Chief Executive, Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), Alhaji Umaru Ibrahim has urged the management of Jaiz Bank Plc to intensify its public awareness and financial education campaign to showcase benefits of non-interest banking practice in the country.
He said such enlightenment could improve the volume of patronage as well as stimulate overall economic development.
He noted that the benefit of profit and loss banking was a mutually rewarding partnership among all participants in the Islamic banking in line with its business practices.
Ibrahim said on its part, the corporation had developed a non-interest banking deposit insurance fund framework in May 2015 to create a level playing field and provide deposit protection for depositors involved in non-interest banking and protect them against possible losses.
Speaking in Abuja while receiving the Managing Director of Jaiz Bank Plc, Mr. Muhammad Nurul Islam and other top Management staff of the Bank who paid him a courtesy visit to provide update on recent developments in the bank, the NDIC boss said the corporation had trained its staff in Malaysia in non interest banking as an area of specialisation.
He added that the corporation was in the process of appointing committee of experts to advise it on all issues relating to Deposits Insurance Scheme (DIS) for non interest banking.
He however, noted that the dearth of viable investment windows like Sukuk and other Sharia compliant investment portfolios would require collaboration between the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Debt Management Office (DMO), Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) as well as Infrastructure Concession and Regulatory Commission (ICRC) to develop Sharia permissible investment products.
He pointed out that the lack of investment instruments for premium collected from the non-interest banking subsector posed a challenge for the corporation.
He, however, congratulated Jaiz Bank on the recent approval-in-principle license it obtained from the CBN to become a national bank and the waiver granted to it on the reduction of its liquidity ratio from 30 percent to 10 percent in order to create a level playing field as well as engender healthy competition.
In a statement signed by the Head, Communication and Public Affairs, NDIC, Alhaji Hadi Birchi, Ibrahim further enjoined the bank to imbibe sound corporate governance practices and guard against insider abuses stressing that the success of the bank would go a long way in addressing poverty alleviation and promote the growth and development of the poor who are mostly engaged in small and medium scale businesses throughout the country.
Meanwhile, Islam, in his remarks expressed gratitude for the assistance it received from the supervisory authorities particularly from the NDIC.
He informed the Corporation that the bank had engaged the Bankers Committee and other stakeholders especially the Debt Management Office (DMO) on the establishment of Sukuk Bond and other Sharia permissible investment platforms for non-interest banks in Nigeria.
He said Jaiz Bank had achieved in less than 4 years what took its counterpart in Bangladesh 17 years to achieve.
He noted that the bank had granted Islamic infrastructure bond facilities to some state governments in the country.
Originally published on www.thisdaylive.com
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