FCT to partner Jaiz Foundation on services

THE Federal Capital Territory Administration is to partner the Jaiz Foundation to provide infrastructure, housing mortgages and humanitarian services for the FCT residents and the vulnerable.

Minister of FCT, Malam Muhammad Musa Bello, disclosed this in his office while receiving a delegation of the Board of Directors and Management of the Foundation led by its Director, Alhaji  Nafiu Baba-Ahmed, on a courtesy visit.

He told the delegation that FCT had over 10,000 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) spread in more than 30 locations across the suburbs while asking for the intervention of the Foundation’s Zakat Trustfund towards their care.

Bello, urged the bank to intervene through the provision of mortgages to enable staff own houses, as well as leverage the FCT ICT Centre to sponsor trainings for unemployed youths and women in the Territory.

He said: “We have a very soft spot for Jaiz Bank because it is the only bank headquartered in Abuja. By the grace of God, we would try as much as possible to support the Bank as it is basically part and parcel of FCT. I congratulate the MD and by extension the members of the Board for crossing the critical threshold for survival. Many did not give the bank a chance when it was established.

“The charity foundation is unique in Nigeria especially by institutionalising corporate social responsibility. We are aware of its contributions to the welfare of the vulnerable across the country”, he stated.

He observed that the profile of the shareholders of the bank and customer base positioned the bank’s services as, not only beneficial to muslims, but purely a business model which was beneficial to all people and faiths across the social spectrum.

He, therefore, directed the authorities of the Abuja Enterprise Agency (AEA) and the FCT Director of Human Resources to link up with relevant Jaiz subsidiaries to see how a wider part of the staff, unions and staff cooperatives and the FCT Community can benefit from their services.

Earlier, the leader of the delegation, Alhaji Baba-Ahmed who said that the team came to discuss mutually beneficial areas with the FCT Administration, then commended the FCT minister for his efforts to make Abuja a model city.

In his own, the Director-General, Jaiz Charity and Development Foundation, Ambassador Adamu Ibrahim noted that the bank was the first bank in Nigeria to establish a charity foundation.

“The Foundation has the Zakat & Waqf Trustfund to assist the vulnerable segment of the society while its Jaiz Takaful Insurance Plc is to make alternative channels available to provide Islamic insurance”, he added.