TAJBank TAJBank Youth Account (Vibe)

History and scale. TAJBank secured its CBN licence on 3 July 2019 and began operations on 2 December 2019 with two pioneer branches, in Abuja and Kano, adding Sokoto in August 2020. It made an early mark by becoming the first non-interest bank in Nigeria to break even in its first financial year, lifting total assets from N9bn at end-2019 to N50bn a year later, and earned a national banking licence in August 2022. Growth has stayed steep: 2024 audited accounts show total assets of N953.1bn (up 84% from N518.3bn), customer deposits of N696.4bn (up 89% from N369.3bn), financing of N272.1bn (up 88%), gross earnings of N77.5bn (up 80%) and profit before tax of N18.2bn (up 61% from N11.3bn), with total equity of N61.25bn. It now runs 50-plus branches and over 1,500 staff.

Sukuk pioneering. TAJBank's defining achievement is in the capital markets. In late 2022 it issued the first tranche of a N100bn sukuk programme, a N10bn Additional Tier 1 Mudarabah sukuk with loss-absorbency features, which was oversubscribed to N11.4bn (113.6%), and in February 2023 it became the first corporate in Nigeria and the West African sub-region to list a sukuk on the Nigerian Exchange. This is not a marketing line; it directly shapes the bank's retail proposition, which includes a Sukuk Investment Service letting ordinary customers invest in sukuk from N10,000 with no upfront, subscription or redemption fees.

Product shelf. Deposits are clean and low-fee: tiered Qard savings mapped to CBN KYC levels, a profit-sharing Partnership (Musharaka) savings account, zero-balance Qard current and payroll accounts, a zero-maintenance domiciliary account in USD/EUR/GBP, the Emerald Kiddies account (N2,000 entry, monthly profit), the Vibe youth account, a Mudharabah time deposit (N500,000, 1-12 months) and Wakalah agency investment. Financing runs through Murabahah cost-plus asset and auto finance, the collateral-light Murabaha for Traders (N500,000-N5m, up to N10m for repeat customers, 90 days), Istisna construction and manufacturing finance, working-capital and import Murabaha, Wakalah letters of credit, Kafala bonds and guarantees, and Musharaka equity partnership. TAJBank also secured Letter of Credit Dealership and foreign-exchange licences noted in its 2024 accounts.

Shariah governance. The Advisory Committee of Experts has four named members: Asst. Prof. Dr. Ziyaad Mahomed (Chairman; INCEIF University, Malaysia, who also chairs HSBC Amanah Malaysia and has structured major sovereign and corporate sukuk), Dr. Muhammed Tabiu SAN (Professor of Islamic Law, Bayero University Kano), Dr. Sa'id Adekunle Mikail (ISRA researcher and INCEIF lecturer) and Usama Saleh (Secretary and Head of Sharia Audit, a pioneer non-interest banker formerly of Jaiz Bank). The chair's sukuk expertise is a natural fit for a bank whose identity is built on sukuk. TAJBank operates under the CBN non-interest framework and FRACE.

Pricing transparency and gaps. As across the sector, TAJBank publishes almost no financing margins, guarantee fees or deposit profit-sharing ratios, so pricing appears only at application. Two specific gaps matter: there is no dedicated retail home-purchase mortgage, residential finance runs through Istisna construction, so a buyer of an existing home is not served the way Jaiz serves them; and the savings page labels its profit-sharing account inconsistently as both Mudarabah and Musharaka.

Assessment. TAJBank is the modern, capital-markets-oriented face of Nigerian Islamic finance: fast-growing, profitable, digital-first, and genuinely distinctive on sukuk. It suits investors and tech-comfortable customers well, and its trader finance is thoughtfully inclusive. It is not the bank for someone buying a home, and it asks you to negotiate prices without public benchmarks. Weighed against Jaiz, it trades depth and a home-finance product for digital polish and sukuk leadership.