IslamicFinance.de

Following the approval of the Lotus Halal Fixed Income Fund offer by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Lotus Capital Limited held the signing ceremony in respect of the Offer on April 14, 2016. The offer has an initial subscription size of N1,000,000,000.00 consisting of 1,000,000 units at N1,000 per unit. The Fund will be launched upon receipt of final approval from SEC. The primary objective of the fund is to generate returns from investments in Shari’ah compliant fixed income securities and contracts, while ensuring capital preservation. A minimum investment of N5,000 is required.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Debt Management Office (DMO) have inaugurated a committee for the nation’s first sovereign Sukuk. Mr Mounir Gwarzo, SEC Director-General, who confirmed the committee’s inauguration, said it comprised staff of the commission and DMO, and would set up modalities for the first sovereign bond. He said that Sukuk had not been approved by the commission at the moment. Gwarzo said that recently, the commission was working with the DMO to ensure issuance of the bond in the second quarter of 2016. He said that the commission would support DMO in capacity building to ensure successful issuance of the bond.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has reached an agreement with the Debt Management Office (DMO) to issue Nigeria’s maiden sovereign Sukuk. The decision by the two government agencies to collaborate to issue the Sukuk was a major outcome of the visit of the Director General of SEC, Mounir Gwarzo to the DMO on Wednesday. The visit was a return gesture to a similar exercise by the Director General of DMO, Abraham Nwankwo, in November last year. Mr. Nwankwo revealed that issuing a sovereign Sukuk has been part of the institution’s strategic plan drawn three years ago, urging Nigerians to support SEC to building capacity in order to realize the goal of issuing Nigeria’s first sovereign Sukuk in 2016.

The Securities and Exchange Commission and the City of London on Tuesday pledged to work together to deepen Islamic finance in Nigeria in order to bring financial inclusion to Nigerian Muslims and non-Muslims averse to traditional financial system and products. The Lord Mayor of London, Mr. Alderman Yarrow said London with six Islamic banks and another 20 lenders currently offering Islamic financial products and services had the capacity to help Nigeria to deepen its Islamic financial system. Meanwhile, the commission is considering modalities for setting up a Sharia advisory council as a body of experts to advise it on non-interest product applications.