August 27, 2008
Dear Sir,
RE: UPDATE ON
THE PROPOSED JAIZ BANK
Once again it is our pleasure
and privilege to give you an update on the progress of the
establishment of the proposed Jaiz Bank.
In our last
update we stated that one of the major challenges for the
take off of the Bank was to identify and reach an agreement
with a Strategic Investor to provide both part of the
capital and technical management.
We are pleased to inform you
that early this year a UK and Dubai based Strategic Investor
has sent us an Expression of Interest (EoI) to invest about
US $160m (N19 billion). The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)
has been duly informed and they are very supportive of this
initiative.
In pursuance of the EoI, the
Strategic Investor visited us twice in the year. First, in
April 2008 for preliminary survey to establish the viability
of the proposed Bank. The second visit was from July 21 to
August 8, 2008 for a full Due Diligence exercise.
During their last visit they
held very useful meetings with the Minister of Finance, top
echelon of the CBN, NDIC, SEC, FIRS, etc. All these
regulatory institutions pledged to support the development
of a policy framework to enable the proposed Jaiz Bank and
others that might follow to operate in line with Islamic
Banking Principles.
The Strategic
Investor just informed us that the outcome of their Due
Diligence exercise was positive.
We will, insha
Allah, convene our Annual General Meeting to, among others,
approve the Strategic Investor, call in on our core local
and other foreign investors to redeem their earlier capital
commitments; collate and pay the balance of the required
capital to the CBN.
We hope to
obtain our provisional banking license before the close of
the year; and begin branch rollout early next year – Insha
Allah.
Given the above positive
developments, we once again assure you that the proposed
Jaiz Bank would soon become a reality.
We thank you sincerely for your
patience and the confidence you reposed on the Board and
Management of Jaiz thus far and assure you that insha Allah
it will be a very profitable venture both in this world and
the hereafter
.
Yours faithfully,
For: Jaiz International Plc
M. Mustapha Bintube
Managing Director/CEO
