Zenith Bank, French Firm Sign $100m Power Generation Pact

Leadership / Nigeria: Zenith Bank Plc and the French Development Agency (Agence Francaise de Development (AFD), operator of France’s bilateral development finance mechanism, over the weekend in Abuja signed a $100m power sector credit facility to boost new investments in the capital expenditures of Distribution Companies (Discos).

The signing of the facility, which took place in the inner chambers of the Aso Rock Villa, in the shadow of the security summit, was witnessed by President Muhammadu Buhari and the visiting French President Francois Hollande.

The facility will be a reprieve for the Discos that are currently weighed down by the burden of debt, with historic debtors made of mainly government establishments, including the military and security agencies alone accounting for over N93bn.

Leading the team of the bank’s top executives to the bilateral session where the pact was sealed was chairman of Zenith Bank Plc, Mr. Jim Ovia, while Mrs. Laurence Breton-Moyet, chief operating officer and member of the executive board from the AFD Headquarters in Paris led the agency’s team.

Under the loan arrangement, a maximum of $50m can be on-lent to any single borrower at a single digit interest rate for a tenor of between seven and 12 years, with a moratorium of 2-3 and half years, depending on the project’s cash flow.

The AFD facility is aimed at reinforcing, rehabilitating and modernising the existing distribution networks with the sole target of stabilising the grid. The loan arrangement also provides for technical assistance and other advisory services both to the benefiting Disco and the partnership bank.

Zenith Bank Plc has remained not only a leading financier of investments aimed at developing the power/energy sector in the country, but also a key player in many other sectors of the economy including oil and gas, agriculture, manufacturing, communication, transportation, real estate and construction, among others.

Jaiz Bank Gets National Banking License

The chairman, Board of Directors Jaiz Bank Plc., Alhaji Umaru Mutallab, has disclosed that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has granted the bank a national licence which enables it to establish and spread its operations to all the states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

Alhaji Mutallab, who revealed this yesterday in Abuja when he led the top management of the bank on a courtesy visit to the Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar III, also said that the bank will set up an insurance company called Jaiz Takafuz Plc to enhance its financial base.

He noted that Jaiz Bank, which was established about three years ago, now operates 25 branches, a feat he attributed to hard work and transparency the bank had exhibited over the years.

“To us, this is a great achievement because we’ve been looking for an opportunity like this, and now we are adorned with a national charter. Once we obtain the licence, we are also setting up the first Islamic insurance company so that people can see the difference between the conventional insurance company and an Islamic insurance company.” he said.

Highlighting the nature of the insurance, he noted that the difference between the conventional insurance and the Islamic insurance is that, apart from the compensation paid for claims, the customer is also treated as a shareholder.

He expressed optimism that Nigerians would embrace it.

In his response, the Sultan of Sokoto told the bank’s directors that the challenge was now upon them to rise up to meet the demands of people who would be grappling for their services.

He noted that Islamic banking is developing progressively internationally even among Christian-dominated countries

As part of its social responsibility, Jaiz Bank has also set up the Jaiz Charity and Development Foundation and the Jaiz Zakat & WAQF Trust which would operate independently of the bank to take care of a number of interventions, including assisting the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), disasters and fire incidences.