IslamicFinance.de

The goverment is setting up regulatory frameworks for the Islamic financing, that is growing fast. In Tanzania at the time, it is only one bank that provides sharia-compliant financial products and services but other three conventional banks habe opened a window for Islamic banking.

The Bank of Tanzania has come in motion in order to prevent a possible run on deposits at the sharia-compliant Amana Bank. This happend after reports went publich on social media of the financial institution's imminent closure.
Bank of Tanzania‘s Governor Florens Luoga stated that Amana Bank and other lenders were very stable and there was really no reason for panic over deposits. He confirmed that the bank is continueing with normal operations, and warned anyone speading false information about the future of some banks, including Amana. In these cases stern legal action would be taken. Additionally the Head of marketing and business Dassu Mussa said Amana Bank has sufficient liquidity. "All we can do is to make sure that our business is running efficiently and properly and we are very confident it is doing so."

On Thursday, the Mo Ibrahim foundation announced that its prestigious Mo Ibrahim Prize for Outstanding African Leadership and Governance will have no winner for 2015. This makes it the fifth year this prize has gone unclaimed since its inception in 2006.
In a statement issued by the Chairman of the foundation, Mo Ibrahim, he agreed with this verdict. “When we launched the prize ten years ago, we deliberately set a very high bar.” The Sudanese-British mobile communications entrepreneur and billionaire founded the foundation with a clear objective: to encourage better governance in Africa based on the belief that governance lays at the heart of tangible and shared improvements in the equality of life of African citizens. However, this recent announcement means that a number of revered heads of states such as Emilio Guebuza (Mozambique) and Jakaya Kikwete of Tanzania, both widely credited with the sharp reduction of poverty in their respective states, and presiding over periods of notable economic success, have been overlooked for this year’s prize.
The Award has now been unclaimed more times than won

First National Bank (FNB) is looking to expand its Islamic banking offering to Zambia and Tanzania before the end of its financial year in June next year. FNB, which has been on an expansion phase in select countries in the rest of Africa, is looking to use the Islamic banking offering to capture clients, especially in those countries that have big Muslim communities. Amman Muhammad, the CEO of FNB Islamic Banking, said that in sub-Saharan Africa there were about 280-million Muslim people and the FirstRand group had a presence in countries that had about 200-million Muslims. The bank already offers Islamic banking in Botswana.

Islamic Finance is an ideal tool of financial inclusion and can address the poverty issues in East Africa effectively, according to Mr. Zubair Mughal, the Chief Executive Officer of AlHuda Center of Islamic Banking and Economics (CIBE). He was addressing a gathering of the banking and financial industry of Tanzania in Dar es Salaam during an Islamic Banking and Finance event. The overall objective of the event was to create awareness, knowledge development and sharing the best practices of Islamic Banking and Finance with local financial market, so that the Tanzanian Islamic financial market could be established with solid footing using Shariah & technical expertise as concrete.

A two days specialized Takaful workshop arranged for Insurance and risk management professionals by Al-Huda, Centre of Islamic Banking & Economics (CIBE) took place in Dar es Salaam. At the workshop, Mr. Paul J. Ngwembe, Director Legal Enforcement, of Tanzania Insurance Regulatory Authority (TIRA) disclosed that TIRA is at the final stage of drafting Takaful Regulations with a view to setting up a regulatory mechanism of Takaful in the country. He added that TIRA encourages all stake-holders to attend such workshops so as to acquire the requisite know-how of this system. Mr. Zubair Mughal, the Chief Executive Officer of Al-Huda CIBE said that AlHuda CIBE has a long term vision for the development of Islamic Banking and finance industry in Tanzania and other African countries.

Tanzania has big potential for Islamic Finance and could be the Islamic banking hub for east African countries, Muhammad Zubair Mughal, the Chief Executive Officer of AlHuda Center of Islamic Banking and Economics said during the concluding ceremony of "African Islamic Banking and Finance Road show". This road show was conducted in 6 African Countries for the Promotion of Islamic Finance on the African continent. He stated that Islamic finance is not only taking root in North African countries e.g. Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria etc, as potential exists in all African countries. Islamic Banking and Finance is growing rapidly in Nigeria, Libya, South Africa, Kenya and Morocco, while Egypt, Sudan, Tanzania, Tunisia have already taken good initiatives in the mentioned field.

Tanzania has big potential for Islamic Finance and could be the Islamic Banking hub for east African countries, Muhammad Zubair Mughal, Chief Executive Officer of AlHuda Center of Islamic Banking and Economics said during the concluding ceremony of "African Islamic Banking and Finance Road show". This road show was conducted in 6 African countries to promote Islamic Finance on the African continent. He stated that Islamic finance is not only taking root in North African countries, as potential exists in all African countries. Islamic Banking and Finance is growing rapidly in Nigeria, Libya, South Africa, Kenya and Morocco, as well as Egypt, Sudan, Tanzania, Tunisia. The total volume of Islamic finance in Africa is an estimated 78 Billion USD, which is less than 5% share of the global Islamic finance industry.

THE government has been advised to look into the possibility of enacting a law to regulate establishment and operations of Takaful in the country. The Commissioner of Insurance, Mr Israel Kamuzora, said this in Dar es Salaam recently when briefing the Minister of State in the President’s Office (Special Duties) on the activities of the Tanzania Insurance Regulatory Authority (TIRA). He said the proposed law would provide guidelines in establishment and operations of insurers providing services that are in compliance with Shariah - Takaful. In Tanzania only few banks including the National Bank of Commerce (NBC), Amana Bank, People’s Bank of Zanzibar (PBZ) and KBC Bank offer Shariah compliant services. The Minister for Finance, Ms Saada Mkuya Salum, last month encouraged more local banks to provide Shariah compliant banking services to attract more Muslim customers.

Banc ABC’s Head of co-operate Services, Zulfikar Chando has pointed out that Islamic banking would fuel investment and spending which will in turn support national economic development. The demand for this service with no interest rates shows the need to implement it and make it accesible, he added. BancABC also announced that for the upcoming annual pilgrimage to Mecca later this year in October, the bank has prepared special Visa cards at all their branches to ease the preparation of flight, accommodation and other details of the Holy trip. The service ensures ease and safety while travelling to any destination world wide, Zulfikar Chando explained that clients can choose between prepaid BancABC VISA cash card and BancABC Visa travel money, specifically made for travelling.

Sources in the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs and the Tanzania Insurance Regulatory Authority (TIRA) confirmed that relevant authorities were working on the possibility of introducing Islamic insurance. It is still on preliminary stages but the process is reportedly going on well. Introduction of Takaful will be another milestone in development of the country's financial industry following its liberalisation over 20 years ago, through the Banking and Financial Institutions Act of 1992. The insurance industry is regulated by the Insurance Act, 2009. The latest TIRA market report shows that Tanzania insurance industry grew by 20.0 per cent to 344.7bn/- in 2011, from 287bn/- in 2010.

Multinational corporations and nations buy up land in foreign countries, most of them intending to export the production. Oxfam recently published a report about this phenomenon, called land-grabbing and its problems for the local societies. However, the Oxfam’s study also gives recommendations for a possible solution to the dilemma.

A microcapital event on November 6 – November 8, 2012 has been announced: 8th International Microinsurance Conference. It will take place in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The event serves practitioners, policymakers and academics to exchange experience to convey challenges, trends, and the current state of the microinsurance industry. Some of the topics included are failures in microinsurance, strengthening training institutions, process mapping and performance indicators. The event is organized by the Munich Re Foundation.

Kenya has blocked the licensing of new Takaful companies until a suitable law to manage them is completed. This gives Kenya’s existing Takaful firms the opportunity to grow unrestrained by new competition. But the regulator’s strategy risks losing its position as the leading IF hub in East Africa to neighbors Tanzania and Uganda, who have put no such restrictions on new local and foreign firms entering their markets.
At present Kenya’s insurance law does not admit Takaful as a standalone product, although the law empowers the IRA to launch ad hoc regulations authorizing individual operators on a case-by-case basis to sell Takaful products. The insurance law also does not permit companies to invest in offshore assets, locking out Kenyan Takaful entities from established capital markets in the Middle East and Asia.

Stanbic Bank Tanzania Limited has plans to launch mortgage loans, vehicle loans and home loans through its Shariah Banking product sometime this year.
Mr Mohammed Issa, the bank's board supervisor Shariah banking, told at a seminar that the economy was picking up as result of a wider reach of banking solutions being provided by banks and financial institutions.
Stanbic bank Shariah banking products include transactional accounts, savings accounts and deposit products based on the Al-Qard mode of the Islamic faith.

Stanbic Bank Tanzania has recorded an impressive response to the Shariah banking scheme. Already 5,000 new customers have opened accounts since it was introduced three months ago. Managing director Bashir Awale said to its customers in Dar es Salaam on Tuesday that the Shariah-compliant banking would be improved to enable more clients to join it. The bank also plans to install more automated teller machines to bring services closer to the clientele. It is a system of banking that is consistent with the principles of Islamic Law (Shariah), which in practice prohibits the payments or acceptance of interest fees for the lending and acceptance of money.