The maternal side of my family have been settled in Africa for over 100 years and I spent 8 years of my life living there. Here are 5 reasons why I believe that Islamic Finance (not solely Islamic banking) has a huge potential in Africa.
1) There exists large Muslim populations in the various countries located there e.g. Nigeria. Many of them avoid conventional finance due to religous reasons.
2) Anyone who has studied in an Islamic University/Seminary will know that there are lots of well qualified Shariah Experts from Africa who can assist in providing Shariah advice to IFIs when needed.
3) Africans are very resourceful and are used to dealing with multiple daily economic challenges by coming up with innovative solutions. Many innovative fintech companies have already been established there.
4) Contrary to what we see in the media, there are lots of very wealthy and educated African Muslims who would be interested in Islamic finance offerings.
5) Islamic socio-economic tools such as Zakah, Awqaf, etc can contribute in alleviating the poor economic conditions faced by many living there.
