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IFSB Visits Tanzania, Heeding to the Call of Growing Islamic Finance Interest in Africa

Date posted: 22 August 2022

22 August 2022, Kuala Lumpur, MALAYSIA – Secretary-General of the Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB) - Dr. Bello Lawal Danbatta visited Tanzania early August as part of IFSB’s strategic plan to enhance global visibility and impact of the IFSB.

Echoing to the growing Islamic finance interest in Tanzania, the 2-day visit laid down avenues for IFSB to discuss potential collaborations with several notable key government agencies. Dr. Bello met with Mr. Othman Masoud Othman, First Vice President of Zanzibar, Dr. Saada Mikuya Salum - Minister of State of the President’s Office Finance and Planning, Ms Sauda Msemo – Deputy Governor Bank of Tanzania, Mr. Nicodemus D. Mkama - the Chief Executive Officer of Capital Markets & Securities Authority, Dr. Muhsin Salim Masoud – Managing Director of the People’s Bank of Zanzibar Limited, Prof. Mohammed H. Khalfan – Vice Chairman of Centre for Islamic Finance, Compliance and Advice (CIFCA) and Assoc. Prof. Nsubuga Haroonah – the Deputy Vice Chancellor Academic of Zanzibar University.

The trip yielded positive outcome, when the IFSB and CIFCA crystallised the promise of a strategic collaboration through the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). The MoU aims to establish and implement a non-exclusive framework for the cooperation between both entities for contribution to economic development and financial inclusiveness, thus further solidifying and strengthening the global Islamic Financial Services Industry (IFSI) in the East African block of the continent. The MoU was signed, between Dr. Bello Lawal Danbatta – Secretary General of the IFSB and Prof. Mohammed H. Khalfan – Vice Chairman of CIFCA on 5 August 2022.

The scope of cooperation will focus on a number of specific areas that best fit respective organisations’ mandates and strategies. These will include, but are not limited to enhancing outreach to member organisations through joint-hosting of conferences/seminars, enhancing capacity building of market players through joint-organising of training programmes/workshops, sharing of technical expertise to foster more effective efforts to facilitate implementations, among other things. 

The IFSB currently has 45 member organisations in Africa spanning across 24 jurisdictions in the continent, which includes Bank of Tanzania.