The management of Premier Islamic non-interest bank, Jaiz Bank Plc has denied media reports that rift exists among members of its board.
The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the bank, Mr Hassan Usman disclosed this to newsmen in Abuja on Sunday.
“There has not been any rift among members of the Board as insinuated by some Newspaper reports”, he said.
He said that the “bank will like to set the records straight for the attention and benefit of all our regulators, bankers, shareholders, customers, investors, strategic stakeholders and the general public”.
“There is no rift in the Board of the Bank other than legitimate exercise of divergent opinions on a matter in the ordinary course of the directors’ duties”, Mr Usman said in reaction to a question put to him at the briefing.
He noted that as a testimony to the absence of a rift, the Board and shareholders of the Bank just concluded a successful Extraordinary General Meeting(EGM) where decisions to reposition the bank for more profitability was taken despite the economic uncertainties occasioned by the Covid-19 pandemic.
On the matter of succession for the current Managing Director was considered by the Board as the expiration of his contract approached. Whereas some Directors of the Bank opined that a change of leadership was required to pursue some critical strategic goals, others believed otherwise, given the very impressive performance of the current Management.
He said the Board nonetheless resolved to appoint a new successor in person of Mr. Muhammad Shaheed Khan. This decision was however rescinded at a subsequent meeting of the Board.
He further said the Board’s resolution to rescind its decision and consequently discontinue the appointment process was in line with the terms and conditions of the offer letter issued to Mr. Khan since the offer was subject to relevant regulatory approvals.
Incidentally, the approval obtained from the relevant regulator materially modified the intention of the Board as expressed in the conditional offer to Mr. Khan, necessitating the Board’s decision to discontinue the process of his appointment.
