IslamicFinance.de

Organising the workshop was in itself part of the Access Bank plc’s efforts to create awareness on sustainable business practices in Nigeria.
Ebenezer Olufowose, executive director, disclosed that sustainability business practices in Access Bank means “Balancing economic growth, social development and environmental protection to ensure future generations are not compromised by actions taken today.”

Nigeria plans to license at least two Islamic financial institutions this year.
It will get help from Malaysia to expand its Sharia-compliant industry in a nation where 70 per cent of people have no access to regular banking services.
Nigeria signed an agreement with Malaysia's central bank to cooperate in Islamic financial services, which included boosting micro-lending.

Nigeria plans to license at least two Islamic financial institutions by the end of the year and is getting assistance from Malaysia to expand its sharia-compliant industry, in a nation where 70 percent of people have no access to regular banking services.
Central Bank of Nigeria governor Lamido Sanusi said this month that as many as three non-Islamic banks had expressed interest in opening sharia-compliant “windows”.

The International Islamic Liquidity Management Corporation (IILM) is expected to issue the first Shariah-compliant financial instruments by year-end.
The minimum size of the instruments could be US$300 million depending on the market demand.
The IILM was established on October 2010 with 14 founding shareholders, comprising the 12 central banks of Indonesia, Iran, Kuwait, Luxembourg, Malaysia,Mauritius, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), as well as two multi-lateral institutions, the Islamic Development Bank and the Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector.

Nigeria wants to establish itself as the African hub for Islamic banking and is working on a regulatory framework to try to emulate the success of the industry in Malaysia.
Nigeria is home to the largest Muslim population in sub-Saharan Africa, with around half of its 150 million people members of the Islamic faith. It is also home to one of Africa's fastest growing consumer and corporate banking sectors.

Hajara Adeola is the CEO of Lotus Capital Limited, an ethical investment firm specialising in Shari’ah compliant asset management. She speaks on the challenges of Islamic finance practices in Nigeria and why the country should be part of the huge global Islamic finance market.
"I can use money, but I can't eat it. But I can buy rice at a cost and trade it at a premium and make my profit. Or I can build a house, and I can rent or lease it out. The fact that I have N7,000 for a bag of rice, I should not earn money just for having it in cash, as you do in the bank which is what interest is. You get a rate on money and that is what is forbidden in Islam." This is one of her many points of view.

The banking sector in Nigeria has hardly had time to digest the "Guidelines on Shariah Governance for Non-interest Financial Institutions in Nigeria" and the "Framework for the Regulation and Supervision of Institutions Offering Non-interest Financial Services in Nigeria" published by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Dec. 31, 2010 and Jan. 12 2011. The regulator has already been forced to defend its action of introducing Islamic banking into the country.

Since taking office in June 2009, Sanusi has carried out a series of reforms on the Nigerian financial sector. His merciless fight against corruption in the banking system has shocked the whole country. The seemingly powerful and untouchable bank chiefs have been put into jail, and some of them have been convicted for other crimes. Some people call it the "Sanusi Tsunami". But because of his courageous efforts, he saved Nigeria's banking system from collapse.
Sanusi says they would like to see our banks get into alliances with Chinese banks. I know the China Construction Bank has talked to few banks. And I do know that the biggest banks in this country have been at one time looking to Chinese banks to see if they would come in just the way they did with the Standard Bank of South Africa, even with some minority stake to strengthen their capital base.

On a regional and sub-regional plane several countries are struggling to become the hub of Islamic Finance in African continent or in the West African Sub-region or at least to become pioneers in the field.
On the national scale, market operators including banks, insurance companies and asset management entities are busy exploring this alternative financial model and its potentialities.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), has identified the dearth of knowledge, skills and technical capacity to regulate, supervise and operate Islamic bank as major hindrances to the successful take off of the model.
The non interest banking model is a banking regime that offers services, products and financial instruments based on compliance to Islamic laws.

The growing demand for securities that meet Islamic religious principles may lead Canadian governments and companies to start issuing Shariah bonds.
HSBC Bank Canada may offer $500 million and three government-related borrowers from one Canadian province may issue $1.5 billion of sukuk, Omar Kalair, chief executive officer of Toronto-based UM Financial, said in an Oct. 14 interview. A “handful” of Canadian companies may sell C$1 billion ($980 million) of Islamic debt by 2013, said Daud Vicary Abdullah, global Islamic finance leader at Deloitte Corporate Advisory Services Sdn. in Kuala Lumpur.
Egypt, Nigeria, the Philippines and Thailand have announced plans to sell their first sukuk in the past three months, partly to tap Persian Gulf oil wealth.

The hub, that is, for Sharia finance -- and with Sharia finance comes Sharia, which doesn't give something good for the country's non-Muslims. The country in a "few weeks" will issue guidelines to allow conventional banks to open so-called Islamic windows and subsidiaries.

Nigeria, Africa’s second-largest economy and home to 75 million Muslims, plans to sell its first Islamic debt within 12 months as part of a bid to become the continent’s center for Shariah-compliant financing.
The West African country is seeking to diversify the economy by developing its finance industry.
Issuance is rebounding after Dubai World, one of the emirates’ three main state-controlled holding companies.

Islamabad —Pakistan, Afghanistan and Senegal, among the world’s 50 poorest nations, are turning to Islamic banking to spur economic growth by encouraging people to take out loans and open savings accounts. Outstanding domestic bank lending accounted for 3.5 percent of Afghanistan’s gross domestic product in 2008, 25 percent in Senegal, 27 percent in Nigeria and 46 percent in Pakistan, according to data compiled by the World Bank. The rates compare with 224 percent in the U.S. and 115 percent in Malaysia, a global hub for finance that conforms with Shariah principles.
Developing Islamic nations have shunned banking in part because of the religion’s ban on interest, limiting access to funds for project financing and stunting business growth, according to the International Monetary Fund. Governments should improve regulations, products and institutions that comply with Shariah law to accelerate the industry’s development, Patrick Imam and Kangni Kpodar, economists at the IMF, said in a telephone interview from Washington on Sept. 14.

Cornerstone Insurance Plc, Lagos, has established Islamic Insurance (Takaful) division to offer insurance products and services to the huge Moslem population in Nigeria, the chairman of the company, Adetokumbo Sulaiman, has said. The managing director of the company, Livingston Magorimbo, noted that the life insurance businesses of Cornerstone grew by 136 percent last year. He attributed the growth to product innovation, channel diversification and service excellence.

Islamic banking and finance (IBF) is about to become part of the banking and finance landscape of Nigeria.

Newly confirmed Central Bank Governor is Sanusi Lamido Sanusi.

Sanusi, 47, got his BSc degree in economics from Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) in 1981 and Masters Degree also in economics from the same institution in 1983.

He later read Sharia and Islamic Studies at the International University of Africa in Khartoum in 1991 and began his working career at ABU from 1983 to 1985 as a graduate assistant.

His banking career started when he joined Icon Ltd (Merchant Bankers) and later worked with UBA where he rose to the rank of general manager in 2005.

“What we need to do is open the interbank market, to improve the bank open position limits, to go back to wholesale debt auction, and to reverse the emergency measures that were taken, which were temporary, as quickly as possible,” Sanusi is quoted by the newspaper.

Press Release

LONDON (Standard & Poor's) March 27, 2009--Standard & Poor's Ratings Services today said it had revised its outlook on the Federal Republic of Nigeria to negative from stable. At the same time, the 'BB-' foreign currency and 'BB' local currency long-term sovereign credit ratings were affirmed. The 'B' foreign and local currency short-term ratings and the 'ngAA+' national scale ratings were also affirmed. The Transfer & Convertibility Assessment on Nigeria remains 'BB-'.

"The institutional policy response to the global economic downturn and the consequent sharp fall in the price of oil, on which Nigeria is overwhelmingly reliant, motivated our revision of the ratings outlook," Standard & Poor's credit analyst Ben Faulks said. "We believe the adverse terms of trade shock will hurt Nigeria's credit profile both on the fiscal and external side."