Importing is Nigeria's most banking-intensive business activity: letters of credit, FX sourcing, shipping documents, customs bonds. Every link in that chain has a conventional, interest-bearing default, and every link has a halal replacement that works. Three non-interest banks run full trade desks, TAJBank, Jaiz and Lotus, and this guide explains the structures they publish, verified August 4, 2026, plus the honest limits, starting with the fact that none of them publishes a fee or margin for any of it.
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Structure one: the cost-plus import LC (financed imports)
If you need the bank's money as well as its letter of credit, the instrument is Murabaha import finance. The bank issues the LC, pays the foreign supplier, takes ownership of the goods, and resells them to you at cost plus a disclosed margin on deferred terms. Your obligation is a fixed naira price payable after the goods arrive and (ideally) after they sell. TAJBank's Cost Plus Import Finance and Lotus's import finance line both work exactly this way, and Jaiz's trade finance describes the same LC-issuance-plus-resale mechanics. The Shariah substance is the ownership leg: the bank genuinely holds title to the cargo between paying the supplier and selling to you, earning a trade margin rather than interest on an advance.
Structure two: the Wakalah LC (cash-covered imports)
If you have the cash and only need the banking rails, the Wakalah (agency) letter of credit is the cleaner and cheaper instrument. You fully fund the transaction; the bank acts as your agent, issuing the LC and handling documents for a fee (Ujrah). No financing, no margin, no debt, just a fee for a service. TAJBank publishes this explicitly for fully cash-covered importers, and Jaiz's Wakala arrangements sit on the same shelf. For an importer with strong cash flow, running Wakalah LCs for routine shipments and reserving Murabaha for the big seasonal buys is the cost-efficient architecture.
Structure three: Kafalah bonds and guarantees
Customs bonds, advance-payment guarantees, performance and bid bonds all run on Kafalah: the bank stands surety for your obligation and charges a fee for the service. TAJBank's Bonds and Guarantees line covers advance-payment, performance, bid and custom bonds; Jaiz offers the same family under Kafala/Wakala. These are fee-based instruments, not financing, and they are often the cheapest way to unlock a trade the counterparty will not run unsecured.
The desk-by-desk picture
| Bank | Import instruments | Export side | Published pricing |
|---|---|---|---|
| TAJBank | Cost-plus import LC; Wakalah LC; Kafalah bonds | Within trade shelf | None; holds LC dealership and FX licences |
| Jaiz Bank | Import LC with cost-plus resale; Kafala/Wakala guarantees | Export finance listed | None; corporate Wakala account minimum N300m disclosed |
| Lotus Bank | Import finance, advanced or deferred terms | Pre-shipment and post-shipment export Murabaha | None; export lines require proceeds-repatriation track record |
Lotus's export product deserves a note: pre-shipment finance (funding supplier purchases and production overheads before you ship) is scarce in Nigeria's non-interest segment, and Lotus pairing it with post-shipment finance covers the full export cycle. Eligibility requires an established export-proceeds repatriation record, keeping facilities inside CBN FX rules, which honestly excludes new exporters from the published product.
The honest limits for importers
- FX is the binding constraint, not the contract. A halal LC still needs dollars sourced within CBN rules, and no Islamic structure manufactures FX availability; TAJ's FX licence helps operationally, not miraculously.
- Nothing is priced publicly. LC commissions, Ujrah fees, Murabaha margins and guarantee fees are all relationship-negotiated at all three banks; extract full fee schedules in writing before committing cargo.
- Receivable discounting after you deliver is off the menu; compliant banks do not buy debt at a discount. Build payment lags into the Murabaha tenor upfront.
- Documentation is heavy everywhere: CAC records, statements, performance history and collateral discussions are standard at all three desks.
- What you import matters: the goods themselves must be halal; a compliant bank will not LC a consignment its screens reject.
Building the relationship deliberately
Trade finance is relationship banking everywhere, and doubly so where nothing is priced publicly. The rational sequence: start with fee-based instruments (a Wakalah LC or a customs bond) that let the bank learn your trade flows cheaply; graduate to Murabaha import finance for the purchases that need funding; negotiate a master facility once volume justifies it, with per-shipment drawdowns. And run the desks against each other: TAJ, Jaiz and Lotus all want import flow, and competing written fee schedules are the only price discovery this market allows. The broader business finance picture is in our SME guide and the LPO-specific version in LPO finance the halal way.
Frequently asked questions
How is the FX leg of a Murabaha import handled without riba?
Currency exchange itself is permissible at spot; what Shariah prohibits is deferred-settlement currency speculation and interest on the financing leg. In a compliant import Murabaha, the bank sources FX under CBN rules, pays the foreign supplier, and the exchange happens as a real spot transaction inside the bank's purchase of the goods; your obligation is then a fixed naira price. What to clarify at the desk: at what point the exchange rate locks into your Murabaha price, and who carries rate movement between LC issuance and settlement. That allocation is negotiable and worth more than most fee lines.
What margin should I expect on import Murabaha?
None of the three trade desks publishes one, and we will not invent it. The reference points that exist: AltBiz's published 15.5% flat at the small-ticket end, the 28-30% per annum retail markups Jaiz publishes on EnerJaiz, and the sovereign's 19.75% sukuk rental as the economy's riba-free base rate. Import finance sits somewhere in that band depending on your track record, the goods' liquidity and the tenor. The workable discipline: ask each desk for the margin as an annualized figure on your actual transaction, in writing, and let TAJ, Jaiz and Lotus bid.
Can I use these desks for partial shipments and rolling orders?
Yes; trade Murabaha adapts naturally to shipment-by-shipment execution, with each consignment its own purchase and resale under a master arrangement. The banks' published mechanics (TAJ's deferred-terms import resale, Lotus's advanced-or-deferred import finance) are per-transaction by design. For rolling import programmes, negotiate the master facility once: overall limit, margin formula, document requirements, then draw per shipment. It converts each cycle from a fresh credit application into an operational step, which is where established importers save the most time.
Do the banks screen what I import?
Yes, on two layers. Compliance screening applies as at any bank: customs codes, sanctions, documentation. Shariah screening is the additional layer: the goods themselves must be permissible, so alcohol, non-halal meat products, gambling equipment and similar categories are outside the door regardless of their legality. TAJ's MFT exclusion list (petroleum, bureaux de change, financial services) shows the pattern at retail scale. If your catalogue includes borderline items, raise them explicitly before structuring the facility; discovering a screen at document-presentation time is expensive.
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Do I need separate facilities for the LC and the financing?
Structurally they are separable: an LC is a payment instrument and the Murabaha is the financing, and a well-capitalized importer can take the LC alone with cash cover. In practice the desks package them, and the packaged conversation is where the real terms live: the LC's fees, the margin on the financed leg, the FX handling, and the collateral covering the whole chain. Ask for the package priced as one all-in cost on your actual transaction, then ask what drops if you cash-collateralize the LC yourself. The difference is the price of the financing leg, stated honestly.