What sets Alizz Islamic Bank apart from other entities in the industry, and what is your vision for its future growth and expansion?
With pride, we as a team are focused and committed to successfully completing and delivering our strategic objectives related to performance, people, transformation, and efficiency. Our plan is to sustain and expand the bank organically by leveraging all our investments. With our long-term plans in place, we are confident of leading the industry through innovative initiatives.
We will soon be opening our first smart branch, adjacent to our brand new head office, which will be a testament to the bank’s commitment towards digital transformation. This move caters to clients seeking fast and convenient services, aligning with our commitment to meeting their evolving needs. The new head office is also a physical representation of the new era of banking as it continues to deliver Sharia-compliant banking solutions and contribute to the nation’s growth and prosperity.
In terms of business and customer experience, our focus remains on value-added propositions, where we offer our customers a comprehensive suite of Sharia-compliant wholesale and retail banking products and services. For retail clients, we emphasise flexibility by providing a diverse range of solutions beyond traditional salary-based facilities. Additionally, recognising the unique requirements of SMEs, we have tailored commercial facilities, allowing us to expand our customer base and provide added value to our clients. These initiatives continue to attract customers to bank with us, reinforcing our position in the market.
As a leader, what strategies do you employ to ensure success and sustainability of Alizz Islamic Bank in today’s competitive market?
Embracing innovation is paramount for us; we strive to distinguish ourselves and ensure that everything we do is simply ‘out of the box’. As the market continues to be challenging with lots of competition within the industry, understanding customer needs remains our top priority. Data analysis precedes every decision, underscoring the importance of informed choices.
As a proponent of continuous learning, I am dedicated to sharing knowledge and experience with my team. I foster a culture of creativity, encouraging individuals to explore innovative solutions and benchmark against industry best practices. Efficiency is vital, emphasising the importance of saving time and resources across projects. Transparent communication has played a pivotal role in facilitating the bank’s transformation journey. Valuing our team members is also essential; their dedication is instrumental in our success as a leader in the industry.
How does Alizz Islamic Bank approach innovation and technology adoption to stay ahead of the curve in the Islamic banking sector?
In addition to our existing digital infrastructure, we continuously evaluate and upgrade our online platforms to offer customers an enhanced digital experience. Our aim is to introduce new innovative features across our existing digital channels, such as our Mobile Banking Application and Online Banking platforms, to ease the flow of operations and allow customers to execute banking transactions themselves anywhere, anytime.
‘Digital’ is an integral part of our ongoing transformation strategy, and the bank has a robust execution plan in place to enhance customers’ digital experiences. Oman is currently undergoing a significant shift in digitalisation and digitisation, with a noticeable growing trend in the market for e-learning platforms, as well as e-commerce and digital payment gateways. We as an ogranisation are aware that the market is headed in this direction, and that we need to be prepared to avoid the risk of being left behind. Innovation, digital and technological integration are main components of Oman’s Vision 2040 plan, and aligning with the country’s vision is imperative for our success.
As CEO of Alizz Islamic Bank, what are the key factors that have helped you foster a culture of excellence within the organisation?
Personally, I am witnessing significant progress across the planned projects; this year we are expecting to double our efforts to exceed our set targets. The key factor that bolsters our accomplishments is our focus on areas that drive sustainable growth and strengthen our strategic partnerships.
We believe ‘people’ are our main asset and they are the key to driving the success of Alizz Islamic Bank. Through our ‘Human Capital’ initiative, we focus on building a culture that embodies the values of the bank, ensuring that the focus is on developing our people.
As mentioned earlier, the bank’s vision is to focus on ‘personalising every financial experience through innovative and smart solutions.’ The values are based on us being ‘Ethical’ in our dealings, ‘Collaborative’ in our approach, ‘Leaders’ in our results, ‘Agile’ in our actions and ‘Trustworthy’ in our services. These values will support our vision, shape our culture, and reflect who we are as a bank.
How does Alizz Islamic Bank prioritise sustainability and environmental responsibility in its business practices?
We put in a lot of effort to develop our staff, as we believe in providing equal opportunities to every individual within the bank. This strategy was inspired by the principles of Shari’a and Islamic banking principles which focus heavily on the importance of equality.
Our strategic direction is to educate members of society about Islamic banking products, encourage banking innovation, and enable the bank’s experts to share knowledge in their various fields of expertise. One of the most valuable intangible assets that Alizz Islamic Bank is keen to develop further is to share knowledge of Islamic finance and business as a platform for sustainability under the pillar of education.
To list a few examples of the bank’s impactful programmes that contribute to society, I would like to highlight the leadership development programme called ‘RuwadAlizz’. Developed by Alizz Islamic Bank in association with Harvard Business School, it revolves around enhancing leadership skills for around 60 graduates. Notably, the programme is not limited to leaders from Alizz Islamic Bank; it inducts senior executives from the government and the larger corporate sector. We believe that this programme is creating leaders not only for our bank but for Oman’s economy and for the next generation.
The other programme is an internship initiative called ‘ManahilAlizz’. It targets potential students from colleges and universities who would like to undergo an intensive internship programme with the bank.
To ensure regional diversity, students are selected from various universities across the country. These students then partake in a three-month internship, which provides them with a close look at the bank’s overall operations and how it contributes to the economy.
We also take great pride in working with talented Omani SMEs to achieve unified success and we are open to supporting more innovative initiatives, especially from SMEs that meet our strategic goals and objectives.
We work closely with SMEs under our umbrella and provide them with financial solutions through responsible lending. As far as the environmental pillar is concerned, we are working on several initiatives that are helping and protecting the environment, such as green finance, electric vehicle finance, clean energy projects, etc.
