A fi nancial expert has said that the sustainable development of Islamic fi nance off ers benefi t for economic growth, reducing poverty and fostering shared prosperity.
Addressing journalist in Lagos at a day workshop, managing director Islamic Banking and Finance Institute Nigeria, Sani Dutsinma said Islamic fi nance can contribute to economic development given its direct link to physical assets and real economy.
He said the use of profi t and loss sharing encourages the provision of fi nancial support to productive enterprise that can increase out put and generate jobs.
He said that the emphasis on tangible assets ensures that the industry supports only transactions that serve a real purpose, thus discouraging fi nancial speculation.
Speaking further he said Islamic fi nance is Equity -based, asset-backed, ethical, sustainable, environmentally and socially – responsible fi nance, adding it promotes risk sharing, connects the fi nancial sector with the real economy and emphasizes fi nancial inclusion and social welfare.
He noted that Islamic banking and Finance has the potential to check greed, highhandedness, selfi shness and corruption not only in the banking and fi nance industry but also in the public sector.
He said as being an assets based, he said Islamic banking and Finance should in principles be less prone to fi nancial crime.
In the international transactions, he said if equity-based tools of Islamic fi nance are based to bring foreign capital into Nigeria, technically the new injection of foreign capital into the country will not lead to an increase in national debt.
According to him ” even in the case of the government using Sukuk for raising debtbased shariah-compliant capital, the fi nancing will always be tightly linked to an already existing assets or will be used for creating new assets.
He said that this close proximity with the assets being fi nanced would make Islamic banking and Finance less prone to corruption
