The Deputy Managing Director (DMD) of Jaiz Bank Plc, Mallam Mahe Abubakar Mahmud, has said he has the passion to invest in agricultural enterprises during his post-retirement towards contributing to food security and economic diversification.
Mahe is retiring from the service of the bank as he attained the 60 years retirement age.
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A farewell ceremony was organised by Jaiz Bank in Mahe’s honour at the bank’s headquarters in Abuja on Thursday.
Mahe, who spoke about his prospects in an interview, said: “I am going to be 60 years old in the next forty days, that is why I am retiring after 30 years in the banking industry.
“I want to start an enterprise, I have a farm where I go during my spare time but I want to take it a bit further.
“So I want to access a facility to start processing agricultural products like maize, rice and others. That is my own passion to pursue.”
The outgoing DMD said he had spent seven years at the bank after joining Jaiz in April 2014 as an Executive Director, Business Development.
“After one year of serving, I was made to act as MD of Jaiz because at that time the substantive MD’s contract was concluded and he was going back home.
“So, before they appointed a new MD, they gave me the opportunity to serve for six months.
“After the appointment of the MD, Mallam Hassan Usman as the substantive MD, I was elevated to become the Deputy Managing Director (DMD), and since 2016, I have been the DMD, that is for four years and six months,” Mahe said.
As the DMD, he said his roles include deputising for the MD when he is not around, either on vacation or on assignment while he continued his primary assignment as the Director, Business Development.
He recalled efforts of the Jaiz management team in pulling off some innovative strategies to improve the business including the ongoing Jaiz Hajj Savings Scheme (HSS).
He said, “I am part of the team that initiated it. Since I joined Jaiz, the team has been trying to get it off the ground and that is seven years and I know that before I joined, there were efforts on it but we were not able to achieve it until now. It has been the result of a very long struggle.”
On partnerships to develop the Micro, Small and Medium-scale Enterprise (MSME) sector, Mahe said the bank has done so well.
“There have been key partnerships in that direction with the Bank of Industry (BOI), Bank of Agriculture (BOA), Development Bank of Nigeria (DBN) and others.
“We are even working to bring in an international body into it to partake in that sector.
“Once we do that, we will go into dollar-denominated SME financing.”
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