*Billionaire businessman, Alhaji Umaru Abdul Mutallab is the founder of Jaiz Bank, Nigeria’s first non-Islamic Bank.
*The businessman is a trained accountant, retired banker and two-time former minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Nigeria’s pioneer Non-Interest Bank in Nigeria, Jaiz Bank Plc recently celebrated its 10th year anniversary. The bank started operations on the 6th of January 2012 and has since then grown considerably. Its assets and contingents are put at N278 billion so far.
According to the bank, it started with three branches in Abuja, Kaduna and Kano and as the pioneer non-interest bank, it broke even within its first three years while raising its balance sheet of N12bn in 2012 to N278bn as of 2020 financial year.
According to the international annual ranking by “The Asian Banker” (A Singapore-based leading provider of strategic intelligence on the financial services industry), Jaiz Bank ranks 36th on the World’s strongest Islamic Banks as at 2021.
The Man Behind It All
Alhaji Umaru Abdul Mutallab is an accomplished accountant, businessman and retired banker who sat on the board of many companies like UBA, First Bank before founding Jaiz Bank, Nigeria’s first non-interest bank.
He previously served twice as a Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Unknown to many, he is the father of Umar Farouk Mtallab, the suicide bomber who tried to bomb a Northwest Airlines flight on December 25, 2009 over US skies.
How Jaiz Bank Came To Be
In a recent interview, Alhaji Umaru narrated his journey as a Minister of Economic Development and Reconstruction and subsequently as Minister of Cooperative and Supply and how the idea to setup an Islamic bank came by.
‘’I had stayed for close to 10 years in Lagos. Initially as Minister of Economic Development and Reconstruction and later as Minister of Cooperative and Supply. It was from there that the Chairman of UBA, Victor Ndalugi, invited me that I should come and be the Executive Vice Chairman of UBA.
When asked if he the UBA offer was why he quit his ministerial appointment, he replies in the affirmative
‘’Yes; because I had an offer and it was a good one. I was invited to Paris and we met with the top executives of the bank and they all agreed that I should be considered for the job.
‘’So when I came back I was appointed initially as executive vice chairman, but almost immediately after, I was appointed the substantive managing director.
He revealed that he spent 10 years in UBA which streched into the period of Gen Ibrahim Babangida. The idea for Jaiz bank came he says during the late Gen Sani Abacha when he was appointed Amirul Hajj for Nigeria. He recalls that he was part of the delegation that went to Jedda and they were invited to a ceremony of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) where many countries from around the world were hosted.
He says they met the officials and they explained how the bank operates and he was fascinated that it is a non-interest bank, in accordance with Sharia.
Narrating further, he says upon return back to the country, he made many contacts with the officials there including the then president of IDB, Dr Mohammed Ali and a very senior Nigerian working at the time in the person of Prof. Adebi and through him he bagan to get a lot of information of what is needed to set set up such a bank.
‘’When I came back I developed interest in that institution. I made many contacts
with the officials there, the then president of IDB, Dr Mohammed Ali, was very cooperative. He also had a very senior Nigerian working at that time in the person of Prof Adebi, and through him we began to get a lot of information of what needed to be done to set up that kind of bank.
‘’One of the things that we tried was to convince Nigeria to be a member of the IDB. Although we were members of the Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC), we were the only country at that time which was not a member of the IDB, so we were not getting all the benefits that other countries were getting.
‘’So we were looking at it from two aspects: how to set up a bank which is fully supported by IDB and for Nigeria to be a member of the IDB. Nigeria is now the fifth or sixth largest shareholder in IDB.
So that was how the interest developed, it was a lot of effort, a lot of travelling, a lot discussions, a lot of work, a lot of things were done by myself and Mustapha Bintube, who was the first managing director. We went to all the nooks and corners of this country and also all the nooks and corners of Middle East, US and what have you, all looking for investors and people who can assist us setting up the bank.
