IslamicFinance.de

Ongoing development of Islamic finance in Kenya is expected to innovate the financial services sector. One area that will see a hive of activity in the local market will be the introduction of sukuk. The Kenyan government is now preparing to issue the first Sovereign Sukuk with the aim of diversifying sources of funding at competitive rates. Usually, Sukuk derives its financing structure from the nature of the underlying assets available to the originator, regulatory and tax considerations as well as perspectives expressed by the Shariah scholars. However, what may be declared as Shariah-compliant by a team of scholars could be rendered invalid and non-Shariah-compliant by a team of other scholars. This informs the need to have one central Shariah body that regulates the industry to minimise confusion from multiple non-structured Shariah opinions.