Non-Interest Loan in Nigeria (2026): What Islamic Banks Actually Offer

There is no non-interest cash loan from a Nigerian bank, and anyone advertising one is either describing something else or lying. What the five full non-interest banks (Jaiz, TAJBank, Lotus, The Alternative Bank and Summit) offer an individual is financing tied to a thing: the bank buys a car, an appliance or building materials and sells it to you on instalments (murabaha), or pays a school, landlord or hospital on your behalf and you repay the service cost plus a markup over months (ijarah for service). Every one of those products requires salary domiciliation or a business account, a BVN and a bank statement, and none publishes its markup. For a genuine cash need the routes are a cooperative, a zakat body, an employer advance or family qard. The bank accounts hub lists the banks; this page lists the products.

Why a non-interest bank cannot lend you cash at a margin

A loan of money repaid with more money is riba by definition, whatever the lender's name. A non-interest bank can only earn by selling you something at a disclosed profit, leasing you something for a rent, or sharing in a venture's results, which is why every retail product below is attached to an asset or a service and why the contracts are murabaha, ijarah and their variants rather than 'loan'. The one Islamic contract that does move cash is qard hasan, a loan repaid at par with no increase, and a commercial bank has no way to earn on it, so it appears on Nigerian bank websites as the contract for your deposits (your loan to the bank) rather than as a product the bank sells.

That design has a hard consequence. If your need is a medical emergency, a funeral or a shortfall before payday, a non-interest bank's product shelf is slow and partly useless, because it needs an invoice, a vendor and a week of processing. The honest advice is to build the emergency layer in advance, which our guide to building an emergency fund without riba sets out, and to use the products below for planned purchases.

Every published personal financing product, bank by bank

The table draws only on product pages fetched on 6 and 29 September 2026. Where a bank's page gives a tenor or a cap, it is quoted; where it does not, the cell says quote-only, which is the honest state of the market.

Three notes on the table. Jaiz Bank's own page contradicts itself on General Consumer Finance, giving 36 months in the description and 24 in the feature list; ask which applies before you plan around it. TAJBank's Ijara page describes the contract precisely (the bank acquires the service and assigns it to you at the fee plus a markup) but publishes no tenor, so the retail page's mention of school fees, rent and medicals is the only product scope you get. Lotus Bank's product pages load from an application rather than as plain web pages, so the contract descriptions above come from its Islamic Banking page; our separate guide to every Lotus Bank financing product and the Lotus Rides and Lotus Homes reviews cover the two with published terms.

Summit Bank, the newest licence, publishes a lease-to-own product that our Summit SLOF review found documented but unpriced. Below the banks sit the non-interest microfinance banks, Tijarah in Bauchi and Halal Credit in Katsina among them, which serve traders and smallholders with murabaha at smaller tickets; our Islamic microfinance banks guide explains why their terms are even harder to find than the banks'.

Qard hasan: who actually publishes it

Almost nobody, as a product you can apply for. Jaiz describes qard as the contract for its current account, meaning the deposit is a demand loan from you to the bank. TAJBank's FAQ uses the term the same way, distinguishing a Qard Savings Account with zero returns from a Mudarabah Savings Account that earns. The Alternative Bank is the only one of the four to put qard-hassan on the lending side, and even then only inside its small business product, which it says uses 'several contracts that fit our customers' needs' including qard-hassan and salam; the page gives no terms for when a qard-hassan is granted.

AltBank's AltCheck current account is marketed as giving 'interest-free access to emergency funds', which reads like a qard-based overdraft. The product page does not say how much, for how long or on what conditions, and the bank's terms pages we fetched do not describe it either. If you need this, open the account, ask in writing whether AltCheck includes a qard facility and what the cap and repayment period are, and get the answer before you rely on it. No other bank publishes anything comparable for individuals.

What every bank asks for, and why

The requirement that trips most first-time applicants is salary domiciliation. Jaiz lists it on every retail financing product; TAJBank's auto and asset finance target salary earners; AltBank's EduFund and AltRent require the application to be made from a business or salary account. The bank is not being difficult. With no interest to price risk and no cash security, the salary flowing through an account it controls is the only collateral a non-interest bank has on a consumer deal, and the deduction at source is how the instalment gets paid.

• Bank Verification Number and a government ID, which every bank requires at account opening and again at financing.
• A six-month statement of account, which AltBank's EduFund and AltRent pages both specify and which the other banks request in practice.
• An employment or confirmation letter for salary earners; AltRent restricts eligibility to confirmed employees of reputable organisations, and business owners must show CAC documents and three years of operation.
• An invoice addressed to the bank, not to you, because the bank is the buyer: AltRent asks for a rent invoice addressed to The Alternative Bank, EduFund for the school bill, and murabaha asset finance for a pro-forma from the vendor.
• A security deposit or equity contribution: EduFund's page states 10% in one section and 20% in another, Jaiz Home Finance requires 20% equity, and asset murabaha typically asks for a down payment the bank quotes case by case.
• A guarantor or next of kin record, which AltRent's form requires and which the other banks may ask for depending on the amount.

The practical sequence is the same everywhere: open the account and move your salary first, let three to six months of statements build, then apply. A walk-in with no account history will be told to come back, which is not a refusal, just the model.

What it costs, and the questions to ask before you sign

No bank on this page publishes its markup, so the only honest statement is that the cost is quote-only everywhere. TAJBank's asset finance page promises that cost and profit are 'fully disclosed to the customer', which is a contractual requirement of murabaha rather than a price; AltBank's EduFund speaks of a 'competitive markup rate with equal monthly installments'. Both tell you the shape of the pricing without the number. Our guide to switching from a conventional bank explains how to compare a murabaha quote with a conventional loan on total cost; the short version is to ask for these five figures in writing.

• The bank's purchase price for the asset or service and the total sale price to you, which together define the profit in naira rather than as a rate.
• The instalment amount and the number of instalments, and whether the first one is due before or after delivery.
• What happens if you settle early: a murabaha price is fixed, so any rebate is at the bank's discretion, and you want its policy stated.
• What happens if you pay late: a compliant bank may charge a penalty it gives to charity, not one it keeps, and the contract should say so.
• Any processing, insurance or takaful charges added to the price, and whether the cover is takaful or conventional insurance.

Where to get actual cash without riba

When the need is money rather than a thing, the bank shelf runs out and four other routes remain. A registered cooperative society that lends members from pooled savings at no increase is permissible, and the ones that charge a flat 'service fee' or a percentage need the scrutiny our cooperative societies fiqh guide applies. A state zakat board or a foundation can pay a zakat-eligible person's debt or medical bill outright, which is not a loan at all and is the correct first call for someone who meets the criteria. An employer salary advance, repaid at par by deduction, is a qard hasan from your employer and clean. And a loan from family, documented in writing with a repayment date and no increase, is the oldest halal credit there is.

What is not a route is a loan app. Every mainstream Nigerian loan app charges interest, however it labels the fee, and several add conduct that is forbidden on its own terms; our verdict on whether loan apps are halal goes through them by name. The get matched tool can point you to the bank product that fits a planned purchase, but for an emergency it will tell you what this page tells you: the halal system does not sell cash.

Who should apply where

A salaried worker buying a car should compare Jaiz Auto Finance's 48-month cap with TAJBank's and Lotus Rides' terms through the car financing hub, and should move salary to the chosen bank three months before applying. A salaried parent facing school fees has three published options: Jaiz Ijara Service up to 12 months, TAJBank Lease Finance, and AltBank EduFund up to N5 million over a term or a session, with EduFund the only one that publishes a cap and a tenor. A tenant facing annual rent has AltRent and the Jaiz and TAJBank service products, and AltRent is the only one with a published limit.

A trader needs working capital rather than consumer goods, and should look at the business side: TAJBank's Murabaha for Traders, AltBiz, Jaiz MSME finance and Lotus SME finance are reviewed individually on this site. A student with no salary account is, in plain terms, outside every product above; the real options are a family qard, a zakat body if eligible, and a part-time income, in that order.

The decision

If you are searching for a non-interest loan because you need a thing (a car, a fridge, a term's fees, a year's rent), the system works: pick the bank whose product names your need, move your salary, gather the six documents above, and ask for the five cost figures in writing. If you are searching because you need cash, stop looking at banks. Go to your cooperative, your employer, a zakat body or your family, and start the emergency fund that will make the next shortfall a non-event.

The gap in the market is a published qard hasan product with a cap, a tenor and conditions. AltBank's AltCheck hints at one; nobody has written it down. Until a bank does, treat every 'interest-free loan' advertisement from anyone other than the five licensed non-interest banks and the licensed non-interest microfinance banks as a conventional loan with a halal label. Facts checked against tajbank.com, lotusbank.com, altbank.ng on 29 September 2026. Jaiz Bank's personal banking page on jaizbankplc.com was fetched on 29 September 2026.

Frequently asked questions

Does Jaiz Bank give loans?

Not cash loans. Jaiz Bank's personal banking page lists Auto Finance (up to 48 months), Household Appliances Finance (up to 24 months), General Consumer Finance, Ijara Service for school fees, rent and hospital bills (up to 12 months) and Home Finance, all structured as the bank buying an asset or service and selling it to you on instalments, with salary domiciliation required on each.

What are the Jaiz Bank loan requirements?

Every Jaiz retail financing product lists salary domiciliation as a feature, meaning your salary must be paid into a Jaiz account. Beyond that you need a BVN, identification, and the item or service identified for the bank to purchase; Home Finance also requires a minimum 20% equity contribution. Markups are not published, so ask for the total sale price in writing.

Does TAJBank give loans?

No cash loans. TAJBank's retail pages offer Cost Plus (Murabahah) Asset Finance with monthly, quarterly or annual repayment and Lease (Ijara) Finance for school fees, rent and medicals, plus Murabaha for Traders on the business side. The bank states that cost and profit are fully disclosed to the customer, but it publishes no rates, caps or tenors.

What is qard hasan and which Nigerian bank offers it?

Qard hasan is a loan repaid at exactly the amount borrowed, with no increase. Jaiz and TAJBank use the contract for your deposits, not for lending. The Alternative Bank names qard-hassan among the contracts in its small business product and markets its AltCheck account as giving interest-free access to emergency funds, but publishes no terms for either, so no Nigerian bank currently publishes a retail qard hasan product you can apply for.

Can I get an Islamic loan without a salary account?

For consumer products, generally no. Jaiz, TAJBank and AltBank all tie personal financing to salary domiciliation or a business account with statements, because the salary is the only security on an unsecured consumer deal. Traders can use business-side murabaha with a registered business and account history; students and the unemployed are outside the bank products and should look to family qard, cooperatives or zakat bodies.

Is a loan app halal if it calls its charge a service fee?

No. A fee charged for lending money, whatever its label, is an increase on a loan and therefore riba; the name does not change the contract. Nigerian loan apps also commonly add penalties and collection practices that are forbidden independently. Our loan apps verdict covers the main apps by name.