The biggest and best non-interest bank in Nigeria, Jaiz Bank Plc, has named Mr. Haruna Musa as its new substantive managing director. The appointment has been approved by the Central Bank of Nigeria, or CBN.
With effect from November 21, 2023, Musa takes over for Ahmed Hassan, who is set to retire at the end of the year.
In a regulatory statement posted on the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) yesterday, the board of Jaiz Bank asserted that relevant authorities had approved Musa’s employment. Musa was previously an executive director at Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB).
The board of directors of the bank expressed their expectation that Musa will head an energetic management group that will take Jaiz Bank to new heights.
In the third quarter of 2023, Jaiz Bank had double-digit increase in all major performance metrics. Pre-tax profit rose by nearly 74% to N6.68 billion.
Musa has been involved in financial operations for almost thirty years. In his 28-year career, he worked at GTB for 22 of those years. He served as an executive director for two periods totaling eight years before retiring in October 2023. March 2001 marked his start at Guaranty Trust Holding Company (GTCO), and he left in October 2023.
In October 2015, he started working at GTB as the Executive Director and Head of the Northeast and Public Sector Divisions in Abuja.
Musa has experience in retail banking, corporate banking, small and medium-sized business (SMEs) banking, commercial banking, business banking, and public sector banking.
In June 1997, he began working as a banking officer at United Bank for Africa (UBA). From 1998 to 2001, he was also employed with FSB International Bank as a Senior Banking Officer. From January 1993 to June 1997, he was employed as an Agricultural Officer II at the Federal Ministry of Agriculture in Abuja.
In addition to his responsibilities in Nigeria, Musa was also a non-executive director at GT Bank (Cote D’Ivoire) Ltd. From March 2015 to October 2023, he chaired the board audit committee and was credited with making a major contribution to the bank’s transformation from a loss position to steady profitability.
Musa, a graduate of Cranfield University in the United Kingdom, Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria, and Bayero University in Kano, is presently enrolled in the last semester of the Universiti Utara in Malaysia’s Ph.D. degree in Islamic Banking and Finance.
He graduated from Ahmadu Bello University with a bachelor’s degree in agriculture, Bayero University in Kano with an MBA, and Cranfield University with an MSc in finance and management.
Musa has also completed a number of executive-level courses, such as the General Management Programme at Cranfield University, UK (2012), the Positive Leadership Programme at Michigan Ross Executive Education, USA (2014), the Advanced Management Programme at Wharton Business School, University of Pennsylvania, USA (2023), and Making Corporate Boards More Effective at Harvard Business School, Harvard University, USA (2015).
The new CEO of Jaiz Bank has also gotten multiple letters of appreciation from his former employers for his outstanding work and selflessness. He is also a Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN) honorary member.
Important snippets from Jaiz Bank’s interim report and accounts for the nine months that concluded on September 30, 2023, revealed that the top alternative bank increased its top line by 39.6%, with gross earnings of N33.04 billion in the third quarter of 2023 compared to N23.67 billion in the same period in 2022.
Total deposits increased to N405 billion, up 63% from N248 billion during the same time in 2022. In September 2023, the bank’s total assets increased by 68% to N546 billion.
According to the bank’s management, the outcomes demonstrated how the bank’s Islamic financing and real estate investment activities have helped Nigeria’s economy flourish.
Operating under the principles of Islamic banking, Jaiz Bank mainly makes money through financing and investment.
The management believes that Jaiz Bank’s solid financial results are a sign of the company’s future expansion and success in the banking industry.
In order to serve its steadily expanding clientele, Jaiz Bank said, “the bank remains steadfast in leveraging on continued investment in its most valued asset, its human resources, advanced technological infrastructure, and more efficient processes.”
The third quarter results, according to market analysts, considerably improved Jaiz Bank’s outlook. The bank intends to raise around N5.41 billion from its shareholders to strengthen its balance sheet and enable quick expansion.
Jaiz Bank intends to offer 5.41 billion common shares, each worth 50 kobo, through a rights issue at a price of N1 per share. Pre-allocation of the rights issue will be based on the ratio of 87 new ordinary shares for every 250 ordinary shares owned as of Friday, October 6, 2023, at the close of business.
The only publicly traded non-interest bank, Jaiz Bank, has already applied to the NGX for approval and the subsequent listing of the rights shares upon completion through its professional advisers.
The majority of analysts anticipated that the rights issuance would be oversubscribed because to Jaiz Bank’s strong performance in the previous ten years.
Following the alternative bank’s 68.5 percent increase in net profit, Jaiz Bank announced at its most recent annual general meeting in Kano that it was increasing the dividend due to shareholders by 25%.
For the 2022 fiscal year, the bank distributed a dividend of 5.0 kobo per share, or N1.727 billion. For the 2021 business year, the bank had distributed 4.0 kobo as dividends per share.
Double-digit growths in key performance metrics were evident in major excerpts from the audited report and accounts for the period ending December 31, 2022, highlighting increases in incomes and profitability.
According to the 12-month report, gross earnings increased from N25.84 billion in 2021 to N33.43 billion in 2022, a 29.4% increase. Profit before taxes increased from N4.16 billion in 2021 to N6.63 billion in 2022, a 59.5 percent increase. Net profit increased by 68.5 percent from N4.08 billion in 2021 to N6.88 billion in 2022, with a tax write-back of N248.54 million. Compared to 13.8 kobo in 2021, earnings per share jumped by 39.13 percent to 19.2 kobo in 2022. From 29.46 billion shares in 2021 to 34.54 billion shares in 2022, the bank’s issued share capital grew.
Along with a more than one-third expansion in its balance sheet, the bank’s total assets increased by 35.6% from N279.27 billion in 2021 to N378.82 billion in 2022. Additionally, the total equity funds rose from N24.31 billion to N29.80 billion.
Based on the underlying parameters, the bank’s net income margin (NIM) increased from 7.86 percent in 2021 to 8.29 percent in 2022, indicating a generally optimistic outlook. The cost-to-income ratio increased to 70.51 percent in 2022 from 75.49 percent in 2022. The percentage of return on total assets went from 1.49 to 1.75 percent. Additionally, return on equity increased from 17.11% in 2021 to 22.25% in 2022. Liquidity increased from 29.78 percent to 38.50 percent, but capital adequacy decreased from 23.66 percent to 19.50 percent.
