PRESS RELEASE: FCT TO PARTNER JAIZ FOUNDATION ON FINANCIAL SERVICES, HUMANITARIAN CARE

                             

The FCT Minister, Malam Muhammad Musa Bello has said FCT Administration would like to partner with the Board of Directors of Jaiz Foundation to provide infrastructure, housing mortgages and humanitarian services for FCT residents and the vulnerable.    

 

The FCT Minister made this known when he received a delegation of the Board of Directors and Management of Jaiz Foundation, led by Alh.  Nafiu Baba-Ahmed, Director, Jaiz Foundation, on a courtesy on Tuesday, July 25, 2017.

Malam Bello hoped the bank would intervene through the provision of mortgages to enable staff own houses as well as leverage the FCT’s ICT Centre to sponsor trainings for unemployed youths and women in the Territory.

The Minister informed the delegation that FCT has over 10,000 IDPs spread in more than 30 locations across the suburbs while asking for the intervention of the Foundation’s Zakat Trustfund towards their care.

 

His words, “We have a very soft spot for Jaiz Bank because it is the only bank headquartered in Abuja. By the grace of God we would try as much as possible to support the Bank as it is basically part and parcel of FCT. I Congratulate the MD and by extension the members of the Board for crossing the critical threshold for survival. Many did not give the bank a chance when it was birthed.

 

“The charity foundation is unique in Nigeria especially by institutionalizing corporate social responsibility. We are aware of its contributions to the welfare of the vulnerable across the country.”

 

He observed that the shareholders profile of the bank and customer base today position the bank’s services as, not only beneficial to Muslims, but purely a business model which is beneficial to all people and faiths across the social spectrum.

 

The Minister informed the delegation that FCT has many orphanages and rehabilitation centres where it provides care or trains the people it took off from the streets of Abuja in the fields of farming and other aspects of skill acquisition.  

 

He directed the authorities of the Abuja Enterprise Agency and the FCT Director of Human Resources to link up with relevant Jaiz subsidiaries to see how a wider part of the staff, unions and staff cooperatives and the FCT Community can benefit from their services.

 

Earlier in his brief to the FCT Minister, the leader of the delegation, Alh. Baba-Ahmed said that the team came to discuss mutually beneficial areas with the FCT Administration. He commended the FCT Minister for his efforts to make Abuja a model city.

 

Members of the team noted that they had witnessed increasing activities in the areas of infrastructural development and housing. They lauded the Administration’s recent commissioning of over 300 units of housing completed by the Abuja Property Development Company Ltd, in Kada District near Kubwa.

 

Ambassador Adamu Ibrahim, the Director-General, Jaiz Charity and Development Foundation noted that Jaiz Bank was the first bank in the country to establish a charity foundation.

 

The Corporate Social Responsibility of Jaiz Foundation, he explained, is the primary responsibility of the Charity Foundation through which it intervenes in developmental issues to complement government efforts in various sectors of the economy ranging from education, health, water, sanitation, humanitarian assistance, economic empowerment etc.

 

The Foundation they noted has the Zakat & Waqf Trustfund to assist the vulnerable segment of the society while its Jaiz Takaful Insurance Plc is to make alternative channels available to provide Islamic insurance. 

Explaining further, the MD/CEO of Jaiz Takaful Insurance Plc, Mr. Momodou Musa Joof, said that the company is another vehicle for economic growth as it is a global trend that is welcome as an alternative to insurance. 

 

According to him, this unique insurance model aims to encourage people who have been shying away from insurance due to religious reasons to now have access to Sharia compliant insurance products. He revealed that the model has been accepted worldwide, recognized by the chartered Institute of Insurers, London and already in operation in Gambia, Kenya, Malaysia and Bahrain today.

 

Imam Abdullahi Shuaib, the Executive Secretary, Zakat Waqf Trustfund took turn to explain that Zakat is a very known pillar of Islam but unfortunately has been  the most neglected in all the nooks and crannies of the Muslim Ummah. 

 

It was for this reason, he informed the Minister, that the Board of Directors of Jaiz Foundation came up with the idea of how to institutionalize the practice of Zakat by establishing the Zakat &Waqf Trustfund as a way to enhance economic and social inclusion while noting that its supports go to both Muslims and non-Muslims living within its domain.

 

Cosmas Uzodinma 
Chief Press Secretary 

To FCT Minister