N5 trillion worth of Sharia-compliant products to be listed in the capital market by 2025

Between now and 2025, 50 Sharia-compliant products with a market value of N5 trillion are anticipated to be listed.

This is consistent with the newly released, updated Capital Market Masterplan (2021-2025) from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

This was said by the SEC’s director general, Mr. Lamido Yuguda, at the beginning of a three-day workshop on Wednesday at the SEC’s headquarters in Abuja for local Shariah experts interested in the non-interest capital market.

Yuguda emphasized the new objectives of the non-interest capital market while being represented by Mr. Dayo Obisan, Executive Commissioner of Operations for the SEC (NICM). These are a few of them:

supplying 100 retail Shariah-compliant items. The projection is for at least 1 million direct investors in Shariah-compliant goods and at least N5 trillion in investments from institutional investors.

READ MORE: Buhari nominates Aishah Ahmad and Edward Adamu as CBN deputy directors

Yuguda added that the NCIM now needs to promote capacity-building programs due to its additional duties.

Potentials of Non-Interest Capital: According to him, the Commission included a section in its ten-year (2015–2025) Capital Market Masterplan for the quick development of the Market in the Financial system because it recognized the Non-Interest Capital Market’s potential for economic growth.

According to Yuguda, the Masterplan lays forth specific Strategic Objectives for the growth of the Market, one of which is to “promote the development of stakeholders for the Market,” and today’s workshop is proof that this particular target has been achieved.

According to him, the Masterplan has made great progress, as indicated by Nigerian Islamic Finance’s recent placement of 13th on the global Islamic Finance Development Indicator for 2021, with assets under management valued at N2.30 billion—higher than Bangladesh and Turkey.

“As you may be aware, the major difference between Conventional Finance and Non-Interest Finance is the application of Shariah principles. This simply means that Non-Interest Financial Market cannot exist without experts in Islamic commercial jurisprudence (FiqhulMu’amalat Al-Maliyya). Therefore, this Workshop will help in fast-tracking the development of experts for the Market. We believe that it would be a magic lamp for developing our local Sharia talent, not only for Nigerian Capital Market but for the Nigerian Financial system in general.

“The level of activities in the Non-Interest capital market that we are currently experiencing in Nigeria affirms the overwhelming acceptance of NICM products by the country’s populace. This shows a strong appetite for other alternative forms of investments. Recently, the Market witnessed the entrance of institutions offering Non-Interest capital market services/products and the oversubscription of the FGN and corporate Sukuk, further buttresses the need for this workshop to encourage the development of Shariahexperts for the Market”.