TAJBank Murabaha for Traders Review (2026): 90 Days, No Collateral Theatre

Most bank SME products are designed for businesses that look like banks want them to look: collateralized, audited, patient. TAJBank's Murabaha for Traders is designed for businesses that look like Nigerian markets actually look: profitable, fast-turning, collateral-poor. That design honesty makes MFT one of the more genuinely inclusive products in non-interest banking, and its published terms deserve a close read. Verified from TAJBank's pages, August 4, 2026.

The published terms

Why the design works

MFT finances a fast turn of stock, and everything in it follows from that. The 90-day tenor matches a genuine sales cycle for wholesale and retail traders, so the finance tracks a real commercial transaction rather than becoming standing debt. The bank buys the goods and resells them at a disclosed cost-plus price, keeping its return a trading margin on real inventory. Relaxed collateral is the differentiator: a market trader's strength is turnover, not titled assets, and MFT underwrites accordingly. The repeat-customer ladder (up to N10 million on a third request) rewards demonstrated performance the way informal market credit always has, but inside a regulated, riba-free contract. The exclusions (petroleum, BDC, financial services) are reasonable risk and compliance calls; the 90-day clock honestly disqualifies slower-moving inventory, and traders in furniture, building materials or seasonal goods should look at Lotus's one-year SME facility with 90-day cycles instead.

The institution behind it

TAJBank is a serious counterparty by any Nigerian measure: N953 billion in assets at end-2024 (up 84% year on year), N18.2 billion profit before tax, 50-plus branches, a 13,000-strong agent network with deep northern reach, and a Shariah board chaired by Asst. Prof. Dr. Ziyaad Mahomed of INCEIF University. The agent network matters specifically for MFT's target market: traders far from a branch can still be onboarded and serviced. TAJ's wider business shelf, working-capital Murabaha, import LCs, Wakalah LCs, Kafalah guarantees, gives an MFT customer a graduation path as the business grows; see our trade finance guide.

The unpublished margin, handled practically

TAJ does not publish MFT's profit margin, so the true cost surfaces only at application. Your anchors: AltBiz publishes 15.5% flat per annum (plus 3% insurance and a 20% deposit) for comparable small-ticket asset finance, and the market's published range runs from AltBank's 9% agricultural rate to 30% on equipment leases. On a 90-day facility, insist on seeing the margin as both a naira figure and an annualized rate; short-cycle margins can look small in absolute terms while annualizing to something fierce, and a facility you roll four times a year pays that margin four times. Then check it against your own gross margin on the stock; if the bank's cut approaches yours, the trade works for the bank, not for you.

Strengths and weaknesses

• Strength: collateral relaxation matched to the real asset structure of small trading businesses.
• Strength: 90-day tenor that tracks genuine sales cycles and prevents debt accumulation.
• Strength: a repeat-customer ladder to N10 million that builds a documented credit history.
• Strength: clear published amounts, tenor and exclusions, better disclosure than most rivals.
• Weakness: the margin is unpublished, so pricing is discovered inside the application.
• Weakness: ceilings cap it at genuinely small, quick-cycle businesses.
• Weakness: sector exclusions rule out several common trading lines.

Verdict

For a profitable trader turning stock inside three months without collateral to pledge, MFT is arguably the best-designed entry point into formal halal finance in Nigeria. Get the margin in writing as a naira figure and an annualized rate, compare it against the published AltBiz grid, and use the repeat-customer ladder deliberately. The full segment context is in our SME finance guide and the Murabaha working capital explainer.

Frequently asked questions

What documentation does a market trader actually need?

TAJ's page does not publish a checklist, so treat this as the preparation that makes approval plausible rather than a guarantee: a TAJBank account with real transaction history (the bank's 13,000-agent network makes opening and feeding one accessible even far from branches), evidence of your trading activity and supplier relationships, and the invoices or proformas for the stock to be financed, since the bank buys the goods. The product's collateral relaxation does not mean documentation relaxation; it means the paper proves turnover instead of pledging land.

Why are petroleum and BDC businesses excluded?

The bank does not publish its reasoning, but both patterns are legible: petroleum trading carries price-control and regulatory volatility plus compliance complexity, and bureaux de change and financial-services agents deal in money itself, where a goods-based Murabaha has nothing real to buy and Shariah concerns about financing currency trade compound the risk case. Whatever the internal weighting, the exclusions are published and firm; affected traders should look to the general working-capital desks, where structures can be tailored, rather than trying to squeeze through MFT.

How does the repeat-customer ladder to N10 million work?

The published rule: up to N10,000,000 may be considered for repeat customers on a third request. Read it as a designed incentive: two clean 90-day cycles at standard limits build the documented performance that justifies doubling your ceiling. The strategic use is deliberate sequencing: size your first two facilities conservatively, repay visibly on schedule, and arrive at the third request with a record rather than an argument. It is the formal-credit version of how market creditworthiness has always been built, and it also builds a banking history every other lender in this guide can read.

Is 90 days enough for my goods?

Answer it with your books, not optimism: measure the real days from stock purchase to cash collection across your last several cycles, including the slow weeks. If the honest number is 60-75 days, MFT fits with margin for error. If it is 100 days, a 90-day facility manufactures a default, and the right products are Lotus's one-year facility with 90-day cycles or AltBiz's monthly-to-180-day schedules. Murabaha's fixed price makes tenor mistakes expensive in both directions, so the measurement is worth the evening it takes.

Can I hold facilities at TAJ and another bank at once?

No published rule prevents it, and Nigeria's credit infrastructure means each bank will see the other's facility through the credit bureaus and the GSI framework. The honest questions are yours: whether your cycle genuinely supports two obligations, and whether splitting volume weakens your repeat-customer record at both institutions instead of building it at one. For most traders, concentrating clean cycles at one bank to climb its limits (TAJ's published ladder reaches N10 million on the third request) beats fragmenting across two counters. Diversify banks for resilience once the business is bigger than any one facility.

Can MFT finance imported stock, or only local purchases?

The published page frames MFT around trading stock without distinguishing sourcing, and the structural requirement is the same either way: verifiable invoices the bank can buy against. Directly imported consignments add layers (FX, customs, shipping documents) that push the transaction toward TAJ's trade desk and its LC machinery rather than the streamlined MFT counter; stock bought locally from importers fits MFT naturally. If your supply chain crosses the border, raise it at application and let the bank route the transaction; our trade finance guide covers the import structures in full.