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Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu and former Minister of Works and Housing Babatunde Fashola have advocated greater adoption of non-interest finance as a catalyst for economic growth and sustainable wealth creation.
Their position was contained in a statement issued by The Alternative Bank following its Beyond Interest: Capital, Innovation and the Future of Wealth forum held in Victoria Island, Lagos.
According to the statement, the forum brought together investors, entrepreneurs, wealth creators and institutional decision-makers to advance the case for non-interest finance as a practical means of mobilising patient capital into Nigeria’s productive economy.
The programme, supported by AltDrive and Noor Takaful, featured presentations by public-sector leaders, capital market operators and advocates of ethical finance.
Opening the forum, Chairman of The Alternative Bank, Muhtar Bakare, said Nigeria’s challenge was not the absence of capital but the lack of long-term investment needed to transform enterprise into productive capacity.
“What we lack is not effort. We lack capital that stays long enough to turn effort into capacity, capacity into durable jobs and durable jobs into stability. That is why the distinction between extractive and productive capital matters,” Bakare said.
The statement quoted Sanwo-Olu, who was represented by the Lagos State Commissioner for Finance, Abayomi Oluyomi, as saying government must continue to create an enabling environment for private investment through strategic infrastructure development and sound fiscal policies.
“The future of finance is not only about the price of capital; it is increasingly about the quality of the economic activity that capital enables. Lagos is not only open for business; Lagos is prepared to do business,” the governor said.
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Former Lagos State Governor and ex-Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, also made a strong case for non-interest finance, saying capital tied to productive assets and the public good creates more enduring value than investments driven solely by short-term returns.
He urged investors and institutions to consider the broader social and economic impact of their investment decisions.
Also speaking, Promoter of Non-Interest Banking in Nigeria and Board Member of Sterling Financial Holdings Company Plc, Abubakar Suleiman, said The Alternative Bank had grown from a non-interest banking window established by Sterling Bank in 2014 into an institution with assets approaching ₦500 billion and nearly one million customers.
He said investors should adopt what he described as a “full ledger” approach by measuring investments not only by financial returns but also by their impact on communities, employees, infrastructure and the environment.
“The Alternative Bank has shown that non-interest banking can grow, win customers and generate profit. The business case for ethical capital already exists. Our task is to apply it with discipline,” Suleiman said.
According to the statement, he cited the bank’s WasteBanc recycling initiative with the Lagos Waste Management Authority and Nigeria’s sovereign Sukuk programme as examples of ethical finance supporting productive investments while remaining commercially viable.
The statement added that Group Chief, Innovation and Technology at Meristem, Dr Stanley Jacob, and Executive Director of Tugrande Alliance Limited, Ajibola Tobi-Osho, urged policymakers and investors to address Nigeria’s capital allocation challenges.
Jacob argued that the integration of the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS) with the tokenisation of real-world assets could position Nigeria as a leader in Africa’s capital markets, while Tobi-Osho noted that the country’s major challenge had shifted from inflation to ensuring capital reached businesses capable of creating jobs and driving economic growth.
