Imported User:
Contrary to apprehension of a run on the bank following the High Court pronouncement declaring Islamic Banking illegal, Jaiz International Bank Plc has said its business has not been affected.
A source from the bank, who refused to give his name, said the bank’s customers were still coming in and conducting their businesses as usual.
We are still in business, we are duly licenced by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and our operational licence has not been revoked.
He maintained that the case was not instituted against Jaiz Bank but against the CBN, adding that the bank was not in any way joined in the suit.
A Federal High Court in Abuja, last week, declared the non-interest financial institution operating under the principles of Islamic jurisprudence as illegal and unconstitutional.
Justice Gabriel Kolawole in his pronouncement said, ‘’There are no provisions in the CBN Act and the Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act (BOFIA) that empowers the CBN Governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi to issue licence for non-interest financial institution to operate under the principles of Islamic jurisprudence without the approval of the Head of State through the Minister of Finance.
‘’Unlike other specialised banks, the Jaiz International Bank PLC can only be established in the country with the intervention of the National Assembly by amending the BOFI Act.
‘’If not that the plaintiff has no locus standi to maintain this action, I would have nullified the illegal license issued to the Jaiz International Bank PLC by the CBN to operate non-interest banking under the principles of Islamic jurisprudence.”
