Brief
Our branding solutions for banks caught the eye of the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of TAJBank, a banking start-up based in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja.
Hamid Joda’s vision was to establish an ethical bank based on Sharia banking principles, but targeting the whole population, aiming to boost financial inclusion and offer customers better value and service. This would be only the second Sharia bank in Nigeria, and the only one with a secular proposition, aiming to boost financial inclusion. Currently, about 38 million Nigerian adults remain completely financially excluded.
We were appointed to create the new brand, once the banking licence application was underway.
Solution
We started by researching the marketplace, identifying the market opportunity and positioning before defining the brand promise. This we summed up as ‘our only interest is you’, which combines the non-interest banking principles of Sharia banking, with the customer centric customer service philosophy championed by the founder.
Against a very tight timeline, we designed the brand identity and architecture and a comprehensive set of brand guidelines covering all aspects of brand implementation, including signage for the retail branches. We then assisted the bank with its launch marketing and collateral, which was executed locally.
Nucleus also proposed user interface guidelines for the website and mobile app, which were then developed internally by the TAJBank team.
Results
TAJBank launched in December 2019, with three retail branches in Northern Nigeria, and more planned. The bank has progressively extended its offering, empowering millions of Nigerians, and creating a mind shift with regards to non-interest banking.
TAJBank Chairman, Alhaji Tanko Isiaku Gwamna, said, “at TAJBank, we are excited at the possibilities before us; the opportunity to significantly boost financial inclusion in Nigeria, and the opportunity to empower millions of Nigerians.”
Founder and CEO, Hamid Joda, added “We appreciate the good work Nucleus has done on our brand and we hope to do more great stuff in future.”
In 2021, TAJBank was awarded ‘Islamic Bank of the year’ and three ISO certifications for service excellence, following being voted ‘Bank of the year’ by Leadership Newspapers in 2020. The bank is now forecast to capture 65% of the growing market for non-interest banking in Nigeria.
www.tajbank.com