The Alternative Bank has launched AltInstitute, a new education platform designed to deepen financial literacy and improve understanding of non-interest finance among students, professionals and entrepreneurs in Nigeria.
Announcing the initiative in a press release issued on Tuesday, the Bank described AltInstitute as a certification and mentorship platform created to close Nigeria’s financial knowledge gap and introduce learners to the principles of capital, ownership, risk-sharing and long-term value.
According to the Bank, the platform was developed to address widespread misconceptions surrounding non-interest finance, which it said is often misunderstood or reduced to outdated assumptions rather than recognised as an asset-backed financial model built around shared risk and real economic activity.
Chief Marketing Officer of The Alternative Bank, Maurice Igugu, said the initiative was aimed at helping people better understand alternatives to conventional debt-based finance.
“People cannot use what they do not understand,” Igugu said. “AltInstitute gives learners the language and confidence to understand finance beyond interest, debt, and guesswork.”
He added that the platform seeks to simplify ethical finance and equip young professionals with practical financial knowledge.
The Bank said the foundational level of the platform, known as The Library, is already live as a free learning portal accessible through AltInstitute.
The platform provides educational content through short-form videos, infographics and deep-dive articles, allowing users to learn about ethical wealth creation, home financing, certainty, equipment leasing and partnership-based finance without complex academic language.
Participants will also be introduced to non-interest financial instruments such as Sukuk, Takaful and other risk-sharing financing models.
According to the Bank, learners who complete assessments on the platform will receive a digital Foundation Badge, which can serve as proof of competency in ethical finance for employers and professional networks.
The Alternative Bank said the curriculum was designed to provide professionals with practical skills relevant to a changing financial and technology-driven economy, while promoting financial models based on asset-backed certainty and shared risk.
The Bank began operations in 2014 as a non-interest banking window under Sterling Bank before receiving a standalone banking licence from the Central Bank of Nigeria in July 2023. It currently operates as a fully-fledged non-interest bank regulated under ethical banking principles.
