Nine institutions. One standard.

Jaiz Bank Plc

Nigeria's first non-interest bank, and the first Islamic bank in the world to break even within three years of operations.

Jaiz Bank opened in 2012 as Nigeria's pioneer non-interest bank, serving individuals, corporates and government entities under the mission of making life better through ethical finance.

Its early years were a stress test of the model. Jaiz began operating in a market that had almost no Shariah-compliant instruments available to invest in — meaning the bank had to generate returns from real financing activity from day one, with no treasury cushion to fall back on. It broke even within three years, a first for any Islamic bank globally.

The scale of the growth since is the clearest evidence of demand. The bank's balance sheet grew from ₦12 billion in 2012 to ₦379 billion as at 31 December 2022. Over the same period, financing and investment assets rose from just over ₦30 billion to ₦249 billion. Customer deposits, branch network and profitability have grown year-on-year since inception.

Jaiz Bank is publicly quoted on the Nigerian Exchange Group and represented approximately 38% of Nigeria's non-interest banking sector assets at end-2024. It has been recognised internationally, winning Most Improved Islamic Bank at the Global Islamic Finance Awards in both 2020 and 2021.

Visit jaizbankplc.com

LOTUS Bank

Ethical banking, ethical investing, ethical prosperity — built to widen the range of non-interest products available to Nigerians.

LOTUS Bank is a Nigerian non-interest bank rooted in ethical banking and committed to deepening financial inclusion. Its stated purpose is to broaden the array of non-interest products available to the banked, the unbanked and the under-banked — a deliberately three-part framing that recognises the reality of the Nigerian market: many people who hold an account still cannot get finance they consider acceptable.

The bank grew out of Nigeria's ethical investment management sector rather than out of conventional banking. That heritage shows in how it positions itself: values described as bold and ethical, an emphasis on differentiated customer experience, and a focus on supporting Nigerian businesses while delivering shareholder value.

Its customer promise is built around partnership. We're proud to PARTNER is the bank's articulation of a relationship in which the institution shares risk with the customer rather than lending to them at a rate.

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TAJBank Limited

“Our only interest is you” — a technology-first non-interest bank that reached a national licence in under three years.

TAJBank secured its banking licence from the Central Bank of Nigeria on 3 July 2019 and began operations on 2 December 2019 with two pioneering branches in Abuja and Kano. A Sokoto branch followed on 24 August 2020. In August 2022, the CBN issued the bank a National Licence — a rapid progression by any standard, and one that took non-interest banking coverage across the federation.

The bank's strategic bet is on technology. Rather than replicate a branch-heavy model, TAJBank has invested in digital innovation and e-channels, including agent banking, as its primary route to the unbanked population.

Its brand promise, our only interest is you, does the double duty of a good strapline: it states the operating model and the customer proposition in five words.

Visit tajbank.com

The Alternative Bank

Nigeria's longest-running non-interest banking operation, now a standalone bank.

The Alternative Bank has the longest continuous operating history in Nigerian non-interest banking outside Jaiz. It began in January 2014, when Sterling Bank was provisionally approved to offer a non-interest banking window — the model that let conventional banks test Shariah-compliant products without a separate licence.

That window ran for nearly a decade, building a customer base and a product set inside a conventional institution. In July 2023 the Central Bank of Nigeria issued The Alternative Bank a full banking licence, allowing it to operate as a standalone, fully fledged non-interest bank.

Its market positioning is the most distinctive in the sector: deliberately informal, design-led, and pitched at customers who find traditional banking dull. Traditional is boring; we design solutions tailored to your individual needs is not language the rest of the industry uses, and that is the point — it addresses a younger, urban customer who might otherwise never consider a non-interest product.

Behind the brand sits ACE, the bank's Advisory Committee of Experts, which ensures every product and process conforms to the ethics of non-interest banking.

Visit altbank.ng

Lotus Capital Limited

The firm that started ethical investment management in Nigeria.

Lotus Capital is a full-service ethical investment management company specialising in asset management, private wealth management and financial advisory. It is the pioneer of non-interest finance in the Nigerian capital market and is registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission as a fund manager.

Its significance is chronological as much as commercial: Lotus Capital was doing Shariah-compliant investment management in Nigeria before there was a non-interest bank to hold the money, before there was a sovereign sukuk to invest in, and before there was a regulatory framework designed for either. Much of the market infrastructure that later arrivals rely on exists because someone had to make the case for it first.

The firm has contributed to the growth of non-interest finance in the Nigerian capital market for over two decades and manages three mutual funds listed on the Nigerian Exchange.

Visit lotuscapitallimited.com

Marble Capital Limited

Green, ethical and halal investment products, built on a technology-led platform.

Marble Capital began business in 2020 as a Shariah-compliant fund manager, licensed and regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission and a member of the Islamic Financial Services Board — the international standard-setting body for Islamic financial services.

Its positioning sits at the intersection of two investor movements that are converging globally: Shariah-compliant investing and ESG. The firm advises clients across green, ethical and sustainable investment alongside its halal mandates, on the recognition that the screens overlap substantially and the investor bases increasingly do too.

Marble Capital operates with a Shariah Advisory Board and a technology-inclined framework designed to make ethical investment offerings straightforward to access — a meaningful consideration in a market where the practical barrier to ethical investing has often been distribution rather than demand.

Visit marblecapitalltd.com

Trust Arthur

Creating, nurturing and preserving wealth — with confidentiality as the product.

Trust Arthur Group is a brand investment management firm registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission, operating on a stated model of creating, nurturing and preserving client wealth.

Its differentiation is relationship rather than product. In a market where investment management is often transactional, the firm has built its niche on confidentiality and long-term client relationships — a positioning that maps closely onto how private wealth actually behaves in Nigeria, where discretion is frequently the deciding factor in a mandate.

The firm has expanded its digital presence significantly, on the view that opportunities for financial enhancement now originate online as often as through introduction. Year established, AUM and product range: verify with the member

Visit trustarthurgroup.com

Noor Takaful Insurance Limited

A decade of building Nigeria's ethical insurance market — including convincing the market it needed one.

Noor Takaful has played a pioneering and leading role in unlocking the potential for ethically compliant insurance in Nigeria.

Some of its most consequential work has been market-making rather than underwriting. In October 2016 the company convened a national symposium on The Challenges and Critical Success Factors for the Development of Takaful in Nigeria, drawing more than 200 delegates from both the formal and informal sectors, including regulators. At that point takaful in Nigeria was a regulatory category more than a market. Getting insurers, regulators and distributors into one room to define what would need to be true for it to work was the necessary first step.

The company approaches its tenth anniversary having helped move takaful from concept to licensed, supervised industry — with NAICOM publicly reaffirming its support for the sector's growth.

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Hilal Takaful Nigeria Limited

Nigeria's first composite takaful operator — and seven consecutive years of returning surplus to claim-free participants.

Hilal Takaful, formerly Cornerstone Takaful Nigeria Limited, pioneered the takaful landscape in Nigeria, becoming the country's first composite Takaful Window Operator in 2010 under the authorisation of the National Insurance Commission. It is fully licensed and re-certified by NAICOM to provide comprehensive takaful services across both family and general business lines.

Its product range is the broadest in the Nigerian takaful market: motor vehicle cover, engineering all risks, asset protection, third-party liability, goods in transit, group schemes, credit cover, mortgage protection and wealth creation products.

The detail that best explains the model, though, is operational rather than commercial. With over a decade as a composite operator, Hilal has successfully distributed surplus funds back to participants without claims for more than seven consecutive years. In conventional insurance, an unclaimed premium is retained profit. In takaful, it belongs to the pool — and Hilal's record is the clearest practical demonstration in Nigeria of what that difference means to a customer.

Visit hilaltakaful.com.ng