One of the youngest regional licensed banks in Nigeria expects to onboard 2 million new customers by 2022 under its new expansion strategy incorporating Islamic finance and technology.
SunTrust Bank Nigeria is preparing itself to join the country’s small – but growing – Islamic banking community next year with its Shariah banking window and will be driving the expansion of its Islamic banking portfolio with digital solutions.
The bank’s CEO Muhammad Jibrin told IFN Fintech that individuals would be able to procure Islamic banking products online, without having to visit a physical branch. The branchless bank has developed the technology to onboard customers remotely which it will implement via its nationwide agency banking network.
“The minimum KYC (know your customer) requirement for agency banking is biometric data or fingerprint – we have developed the technology to capture this biometric data remotely and the data can be uploaded onto the Nigerian Interbank Settle System which will generate a biometric varication number once the agents are connected to the internet,” Muhammad shared. The primary target for its agency banking strategy are farmers.
While the bank, which received regulatory approval to offer products on a regional basis in 2015, aspires to be Nigeria’s retail bank of choice, Muhammad shares that the bank is also assertively targeting the SME segment, particularly the manufacturing and education sectors, and will develop digital solutions to support these segments.
“We are no longer limited by geography once we have technology. Our idea is to use technology to deliver financial services to people – we are using innovative ways to do that,” said Muhammad.