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The National Insurance Commission has released takaful guidelines which state that applicants seeking permits to conduct takaful transactions must own the certificate of registration as a fully-fledged takaful company. The guidelines also state that the company's name must contain words or terminologies that imply takaful operations. In addition, companies must at all times keep a minimum deposit in a non-interest financial institution.

Jaiz Bank Plc has commenced operations in Gombe State, is now located in four states in Nigeria. In the next four years, the bank plans to be in all the 36 states of the federation. Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Bank, Alhaji Umru Mutallab emphasized the bank’s desire to make positive contributions in the society as well as to provide access to innovative channels of financing as alternatives to interest-based systems. He assured that the bank was opened to all irrespective of race or religion.

According to the Governor of the Central Bank, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, banks in Nigeria will be required to appoint at least 30 per cent female board members and 40 per cent management staff by 2014. The decision was taken with a view to stimulating women's participation in development and nation building. He added that this year every bank must publish its gender positions, when they publish their statement of accounts. The Central Bank will not be exempted from this. Moreover, Mallam Sanusi lamented the high rate of school drop-outs in the North where over 70 per cent of girls cannot read.

Jaiz Bank Plc has announced the appointment of the General Manager in charge of the Bank’s Business Development Group, Hassan Usman as the Acting Managing Director. Hassan is a trained Chartered Accountant and a seasoned Banker with international experience. The appointment follows the resignation of the Managing Director, Muhammed Mustapha Bintube after almost 10 years of service. Jaiz commenced operations on the January 6, 2012, in three locations, Abuja, Kano and Kaduna with additional branches opening soon in Maiduguri, Gombe and Katsina.

Insurance professionals have confirmed that, contrary to their expectation, consumers of takaful insurance, targeted at Muslims in the Northern part of the country, consist more of Christians from the South-East extraction. Moreover, the Vice Chairman of the Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria (CIIN) Oyo State Chapter, Mr. Babatunde Omosola, confirmed that takaful insurance products have been doing well in the market because they meet the needs of low income earners including motorcyclists, teachers and farmers, and very simple too. Meanwhile, the President of CIIN, Mr. Wole Adetimehin, has reassured that the institute would remain focused in its support the industry by building the necessary human capital to grow the industry.

The increased level of corruption and insecurity in the northern part of the country as well as mixed signals from power and petroleum sector reforms were likely to affect Nigeria's output performance, according to the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi. Moreover, the CBN for the ninth time in a row decided to leave the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) also known as the benchmark interest rate at 12 per cent with a corridor of +/- 200 basis points. It also maintained banks' cash reserve requirement (CRR) at 12 per cent and liquidity ratio at 30 per cent with the net open position at 1 per cent.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) recently released the Nigerian Sustainable Banking Principles (NSBP) to promote sustainable way of doing business, especially in the banking industry. NSBP is anchored on nine over-arching principles. These were among others managing environmental and social risk in business decisions, safeguarding human rights and promoting women’s economic participation and empowerment. The Bankers’ Committee, as a commitment to sustainable development adopted NSBP, with particular focus on the development of agriculture, power and oil and gas.

The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, has described China as a major contributor to the de-industrialisation as well as underdevelopment of Africa. He warned that with the growing interest of China in the continent, Africa was opening itself up to a new form of imperialism. Sanusi explained that China is no longer a fellow underdeveloped economy but an economic giant capable of the same forms of exploitation as the West. Trade between China and Africa was worth more than $200 billion in 2012. There has also been strong growth partly as a result of Asian demand for African resources.

Growth in the Muslim population throughout the emerging markets of Middle East and North Africa and Asia (MENA) is a key reason behind increasing demand for Islamic banking services. Especially sub-Saharan Africa offers growth opportunity for Shariah-compliant finance. Ja’iz Bank for example, Nigeria’s first Islamic bank, has witnessed growth in customer base, assets and branch network. The future of non-interest banking in Nigeria is bright. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has launched Liquidity Management Instruments to assist non-interest banks to be able to manage their liquidity while National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) has, in collaboration with Ja’iz, designed an Islamic cooperative kind of insurance called Takaful. Similarly, other institutions and commissions are mulling how to come up with non-interest-based bonds for financing infrastructure.

Jaiz Bank Plc has said it increased its authorised share capital to about N11 billion from only about N5 billion in January 2012 when it commenced operation. The bank is currently financing critical areas such as Agricultural, Small and Medium Scale Industries and Home Finance. General Manager, Business Development, Mallam Hassan Usman said the bank's plan is to expand to 25 branches before the end of the year. Moreover, Jaiz offers financing products and services like other conventional banks except these are devoid of interest. The services are available to all irrespective of race or religion, he added.

The Islamic Corporation for the Insurance of Investment and Export Credit has entered into an agreement with Nigerian Export-Import Bank for promoting Nigeria's exports. The ICIEC will provide credit insurance and reinsurance support to NEXIM. NEXIM insurance underwriters would be provided training after which joint promotion would be undertaken in the Nigerian market, Dr. Abdel Rahman Taha, ICIEC's chief executive officer said.

Fola Daniel, head of the National Insurance Commission (NIC), said the Nigerian insurance market has the capacity to become the biggest in Africa and one of the largest globally. However, a recent study shows that penetration rates of products and services offered by insurance companies are low. In order to achieve a higher coverage, the acceptance of insurance among the wider public needs to be increased. The rising purchasing power of many Nigerians may allow the industry to deepen its penetration and lift earnings.

The Financial Regulation Advisory Council of Experts (FRACE) were inaugurated by the governor of Central Bank of Nigeria on January 10th in their headquarters. Governor Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi pointed out that the establishment of the FRACE was part of the provisions of the bank's Guidelines aimed at regulating and supervising institutions which offer financial services compliant with Islamic commercial jurisprudence. FRACE will further ensure that products and services offered by the non-interest financial institutions meet the requirements for compliance to the principles underpinning their mode of operation.

Since the collaboration between the Ethica Institute of Islamic Finance and Haifx Consult is working properly, professionals mow have local access to global Islamic finance certification at subsidized rates. The partnership includes on-the-ground Islamic finance learning centers and mentorship programs. More than half of Nigeria's population of 150 million are Muslim, which explains the striving for growth in the field of Islamic finance in the country.

The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) has been a witness of several stimulating initiatives in 2012 which were designed to to encourage growth in capital market activities and give the market depth. An example: Early in 2013, The NSE Lotus Islamic Index was launched to track Shariah-compliant stocks, listing rules were revised, and recently, the central government stopped value added tax (VAT) and stamp duties charged on market transactions. As a whole, the initiatives aim to transform the Nigerian market to make it more attractive for local and foreign portfolio investments and engender investor confidence.

A meeting of financial regulators, experts, jurists, academics and stakeholders from all around the world is coming up, aiming to brainstorm on how to strategically promote growth and realign the practices of Islamic finance and economics with a view to opening new frontiers for the growth of the industry. The 4th Langkawi Islamic Finance and Economics (LIFE-4) Global Forum is organized by the Insaniah University, College, Malaysia, together with Deloitte, Islamic Development Bank, IBFIM-Malaysia and Rayyan Ventures Ltd. It will ensure a global platform for discussing key issues around the competitiveness, growth and sustainability of Islamic finance. The LIFE-4 Global Forum will take place mid-February 2013 at Sheraton Hotels and Towers, Langkawi Island, in Malaysia. The forum is titled 'Islamic Financial Planning and Wealth Management as the New Frontier for Global Islamic Banking and Finance Industry'.

The initial storm regarding the introduction of Non-Interest Banking (NIB) is gradually settling down. Now it is important to start exhuming the challenges that might crop up in its operations. Especially the taxation of the sub-sector by the relevant tax authorities and the corresponding setting of standards for the type of taxes that apply and that are to be collected from the transactions is extremely important. If the CBN manages to meet the regulatory requirements, it is empowered by law to issue licenses to appropriate entities for the establishment of non-interest banks.

There have been some particularly noteworthy events during Sanusi's leadership at the Central Bank of Nigeria. First of all, he expressed his criticism of the 7-point agenda of late President Umaru Musa Yar' Adua during the confirmation hearing at the Senate in June 2009 and received high publicity. After his appointment as CBN Governor, he found confirmation of his suspicions that some Nigerian banks were just giving high figures to give the impression that they were doing well. It is obvious that Sansui's passions include banking, quest for justice, philanthropy, insightful intervention in public discourse, and vigorous defence of his own opinions. He is a contradictory person since he is supervising a western type of banking which is not in the least compatible with the Islamic heritage.

Gambia shares experience with Nigeria regarding the preparations to developing Islamic banking in Nigeria. It happens rarely that 'little brother' Gambia gives advices to 'big brother' Nigeria, but there is no doubt about Gambia's courageous and proactive leadership by introducing the law for Islamic finance, from which Nigeria can draw upon.

See more under: http://allafrica.com/stories/201210021083.html

IDB's president, Mohamed Ali, have urged for global solidarity in fight against polio. The bank is working on new financial package for the government of Pakistan that should help to finance polio eradicatoin activities in the country. IDB intends to provide similar grant to Afganistan that is same as Pakistan highly affected by this horrible disease.

See more under: http://www.arabnews.com/idb-joins-call-polio-eradication