IslamicFinance.de

Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is often seen as a region that has exciting potential for the Islamic finance market, being home for more than 250mn Muslims. Beside the obvious religious aspects, the products are typically based on tangible assets and prohibit excessive risk-taking.
At this point, Islamic finance in SSA is focused in a few key markets and there are only a few dedicated institutions. South Africa is one of the leaders, thanks to Al Baraka Bank and Oasis Group.

At the recent International Takaful Summit 2011 the experts from Takaful stated that they expect to reach $12 billion by the end of this year.
Ernst & Young think that emerging markets will be the key actors leading Takaful’s growth.
Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Malaysia are currently the top three Takaful markets. They are followed by c, Bangladesh, Sudan, and Pakistan.

Engr. Mansur Ahmed, Director General of the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission, points out that critical imperatives for the successful issuance of Sukuk in Nigeria will include the right regulatory and taxation framework, transparent transaction structure, credit rating, marketing, risk and mitigation measures, appropriate technical capacity and guarantees.
On the other hand, Nigerian newspaper Vanguard reports the West African Institute for Financial and Economic Management (WAIFEM) as saying Nigeria stands to benefit from over $1.4 trillion worth of assets being controlled by Islamic banks all over the world if the nation adopts the banking model.

Microfinance is compatible to work with any model of icrofinance and it presents the alternative to all the products of conventional system.
Zubair Mughal, Chief Executive Officer of AlHuda Centre of Islamic Banking and Economics Pakistan, underlined the fact that Islam has given the best system for poverty alleviation and both Muslims and non-Muslims will have the possiblity to benefit from it.

The Central Bank of Nigeria launched on 21st June 2011 new guidelines for the regulation and supervision of institutions offering non-interest financial services in Nigeria.
It seems that these guidelines are issued pursuant to the non- interest banking regime.
Moreover, the guideline makes sure that there shall be compliance with prescribed Audit, Accounting and Disclosure Requirement such as the Nigerian Accounting Standards Board (NASB) and that where there is a conflict between the local and international standards, the provisions of the local standards issued by NASB shall apply to the extent of the inconsistency.

More than 500 capital management companies and investment funds that are signatories to the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) will be required to disclose information about their investment decisions, under a revision of the PRI rules.

The PRI is backed by the UN Environment Programme and the Global Compact, and has signatories from 45 countries with more than $25tn of assets under management.

Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc (IBTCCB) was finally given approval by Nigeria’s central bank to provide Islamic banking services in Africa’s most populous nation.
Nigeria’s 150 million population is divided in an almost even way between Muslims and Christians, providing it with a market for Islamic banking products. The oppinion of Central bank Governor Lamido Sanusi ist that Nigeria wants to be a “hub of Islamic finance” in the region and plans to sell its first sukuk within 18 months.

Jaiz is widely associated with non-interest banking in Nigeria. The bank has begun its activity in 2002 when the movement for the creation of Jaiz gathered momentous.
Before Jaiz there were many other attempts: starting with WAPA (West African Pilgrimage Agency), which was established during the colonial era to cater for the financial arrangements of Muslim pilgrimage, a name that is still common in places like Kano; to Habib Bank and numerous community and later micro finance Banks established for the same purpose.
But Jaiz is special because of the scale of the project and the hope that is place on the institution by millions of people among them ordinary investors who put their hard earn savings in the institution.

A draft framework for non-interest banking was issued in March 2009 by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). Inspite of this, its position on Islamic banking did not become much of an issue until a few months ago when the final guidelines were released.
D.A. Eke, acting director of banking supervision at the CBN, stated that the objective of the framework is to provide minimum standards for the operation of non-interest banking in Nigeria while serving as an exposure for comments, suggestions and/or inputs by stakeholders. The problem is that suggestions and/or inputs from stakeholders never came.

Mary Robinson, Ireland’s first female president, has called on organisations and companies to leverage on CSR for improved growth and development of emerging economies like Nigeria’s. Her actions are sustained by the fact that she describes Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) as a key driver to the future of the African economy.
She added that the emerging business environment in Nigeria is the one to look out for in the future of the emerging economies.

National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD) was the only Bank from the Middle East of 17 banks from across the globe, that was shortlisted for the Financial Times/IFC Sustainable Bank of the Year Award.
The Award acknowledges banks that have prooven excellence in integrating environmental, social and governance considerations into their business and, along with NBAD, Access Bank of Nigeria and Exim Bank of Tanzania were finalists in the Africa/Middle East region.

Nigeria plans to launch its first sovereign Sukuk within the next 18 months in an attempted move at boosting Islamic banking in West Africa's largest economy. The was no statement about how much sukuk will be issued.

Submission deadline 15 September 2011

Palgrave Macmillan is pleased to announce a call for papers for the Journal of Derivatives & Hedge Funds

For Islamic banking to grow further and develop there are many challenges relating to financing instruments, market structure and market regulation. The aim of the special issue is to provide a central platform and communication channel for researchers, academics, business leaders and industry practitioners relating to Islamic Banking. The key contextual challenges in the Islamic finance industry today include the innovations and developments at the leading edge of the field, and the long-term impact, scope and authenticity of these ideas in the context of an Islamic community and way of life. View full details at:

http://www.palgrave-journals.com/jdhf/jdhf_cfp_islamic.pdf

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

- The Shari'ah requirements in Islamic banking and risk identification.
- Current practices of asset management and portfolio management in Islamic banking
- Need of financial innovation in Islamic banking.
- The impact of the Basel Accords on Islamic banking
- Islamic banking and corporate governance

Kenya Reinsurance Corporation plans to venture into Sharia-compliant business to grow its income and tap into the expanding Islamic finance in Africa and the Middle East where it already exists.
At the Bomas of Kenya Mr Mwarania, Kenya Re's chief executive officer, declared that the company will additionally venture into microinsurance and political risk insurance.

The Central Bank Governor, Malam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi has the strong oppinion that Nigeria has the potential to become Africa’s Islamic banking hub. According to him, the present economic reforms and favorable ranking by global rating institutions, have improved Nigeria’s profile as a viable investment destination.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Islamic banking is a financial system that is based on adherence to the Shariah or Islamic law.

A seminar was organized by Al-Huda Centre of Islamic Banking & Economics (CIBE) and AKHUWAT in order to come up with a plan of poverty alleviation on national and international scale to lessen poverty, social welfare and to tackle other problems pertaining to it.
Delegates from Malaysia, Yemen, Kazakhstan, Indonesia, Mauritius and other countries participated in the event who spoke on various topics of Islamic microfinance i.e. methodology of poverty reduction, Zakat, Shariah implications, Dard-e-Hasna, Waqf models, latest trends of Islamic microfinance, technological application of poverty alleviation and usage of Islamic microfinance in non muslim societies.

Maybank Islamic, Asia-Pacific's largest syariah lender, is going to expand its business in the Asean region and may offer Islamic stockbroking services through Singapore stockbroker Kim Eng, which its parent recently acquired.
The bank's parent Maybank is embarking on an expansion drive to become a regional bank. It operates in 14 countries including Cambodia, Indonesia, Pakistan and Bahrain.

In order to grow its business in Pakistan, Standard Chartered plans to focus on expanding its consumer banking line as well as its Islamic banking portfolio. this statement was given by the bank’s Pakistan head, Mohsin Nathani.
Nathani also revealed that the bank plans on expanding its credit card and personal loans portfolio in addition to expanding the number of products on offer to its retail customers.

The Sudanese Islamic Bank of Khartoum is planing to move into Kenya in what would be the first cross-border expansion of Islamic finance in East Africa.
Kenya is in the process of changing its finance laws to allow Islamic finance. enya has also reformed its capital markets laws to allow the launch of Sukuk.

In order to spur investments from the neighbouring Arab region and Southeast Asia, Egypt will launch its first Islamic debt guidelines and amend its capital market law.
This move will allow Islamic investors to invest in the 180 companies listed on the Egyptian stock market.