Islamic Finance | |
Islamic Finance | |
12488 VIEWS | |
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Jaiz
Bank Plc and Islamic Corporation for the Development of Private Sector (ICD),
the development arm of Islamic Development Bank (IDB), yesterday signed a $20
million line of agreement to finance Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs)
in Nigeria.
Managing Director, Jaiz Bank, Mr. Hassan Usman signed
on behalf of the bank while the Regional Office Director of ICD, Mr. Okan
Altasil signed for the corporation.
Hassan promised to judiciously use the facility to
promote financial inclusion and development of the grassroots.
“We
would ethically deploy the funds to develop SMEs which is our focus area. We
are going to use it to finance the retail end of the economy with the hope of
bringing financing to those financially excluded, in line with our mission of
making life better for people through ethical financing,” Hassan said.
The ICD management said the reason for extending such
financing to some Nigerian banks was because SMEs have crucial role to play in
a country’s growth and development.
“This is an important niche in all the member
countries, especially in Africa. ICD is now focusing on increasing access to
funding to the private sector by channelling the funds to established financial
institution in its member countries,” ICD stated.
The ICD had previously extended a total of $120
million line of financing facility for the development of SMEs in Nigeria.