- As lender accelerates financial inclusion drive
BY EDMOND ODOK – In recognition of its outstanding banking services delivery, TAJBank Limited has now been officially licenced by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for nationwide banking operations.
The authorization comes on the heels of several awards bagged by the country’s leading non-interest bank in the past two years of operations, which include three International Standards Organization (ISO) certifications for its commitment to customer safety assurance, service excellence, and business operations resilience prioritization.
TAJBank’s Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Mr Hamid Joda, who commented on the national licence issuance by the Apex bank in a media chat on Wednesday in Abuja, described the development “as another feat achieved by the Bank to leverage on our cutting-edge and impressive products and service delivery scorecards.”
He stated that by so doing, TAJBank is deservingly becoming the preferred choice in non-interest banking operations at the grassroots in the country, adding; “We want to thank the regulatory authorities for issuing a national license 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.
He attributed 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; as well as shareholders’ and customers’ growing confidence in their products.
For him, the national license would help in growing the bank’s agency network to 25,000 by 2025, thereby reducing the financial exclusion rate across the country.
On his part, TAJBank’s Executive Director, Mr Sherif Idi, said of the development; “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.”
Idi explained that the national licence “is a call for more services to millions of Nigerians, who are desirous of having access to credit without pains”, adding; “Let me say it loud, we shall not disappoint them on this expectation.”
It has been an avalanche of milestone achievements TAJBank since its inception with the management recently unveiling plans to launch Nigeria’s first private sector targeted N100 billion Sukuk programme under a Mudaraba structure, thereby marking a historic shift from government-dominated Sukuk offerings to a fully private sector-oriented offering in the Nigerian debt markets.
