Muslim non-governmental organisations (NGO s) have become important providers of humanitarian relief in contemporary Ghana. Many of them engage in various infrastructural projects, including a wide range of educational, health, and water projects throughout the country. Nevertheless, a major challenge that any NGO faces is securing sustainable funding over a longer period, especially for educational and health projects. Notably, Muslim NGO s and civil society organisations (CSO s) are crucial for members’ self-empowerment as they mobilise and engage members and volunteers, though with limited capacity, to propel structural changes that uplift Muslim communities in Ghana. Arguably, the provision of social welfare and the promotion of economic empowerment among Ghanaian citizens should be a central obligation of the Ghanaian government.
The establishment of the Zongo Development Fund is a significant milestone marking the government’s structural interventions in resuscitating Zongo communities, although its impact may be restricted to urban areas.1 Some Muslim academics and scholars hailed the initiative as a step in the right direction to address marginalised (Muslim) urban communities and called on Muslim NGO s to seek avenues of cooperation with government agencies.2 Others have raised concerns about the capacity of the Zongo Development Fund to contribute to empowerment at the micro-level or to address the special needs of those engaged in the informal sector, arguing that the introduction of Islamic financial instruments could best serve as antidotes to marginalisation.3 A few of them even critically remarked that the Zongo Development Fund and the efforts of Muslim NGO s miss the most downtrodden part of the Ghanaian population—the rural smallholders in the five northern regions, most of whom are Muslims. They further identify Islamic social finance schemes as key to the socio-economic development of and poverty alleviation among Muslim marginalised groups.4
The above discourse reflects ongoing academic debate about the desire for and feasibility of introducing Islamic social financial tools in sub-Saharan Africa,5 including Ghana,6 and an Islamic tool for poverty alleviation and social development.7 Islamic financial services, such as various forms of risk-sharing and cost-plus financing partnerships alongside Islamic bonds (sukuk) and Islamic cooperative insurance (takaful),8 are projected to have grown from USD 200 billion in 2003 to USD 2.7 trillion in 2021, while its global assets are expected to surpass USD 3 trillion by 2020. Alongside Islamic microfinance institutions and crowdfunding, Islamic social finance tools have essentially been marked as key instruments for financing the Sustainable Development Goals.9
A recent comparison between conventional and Islamic microfinance suggests that the market for Islamic microfinance has won more credibility now than in previous times. Nevertheless, the limitations of microfinance and its social impact have been lesser than earlier predictions, and neither conventional nor Islamic microfinance can change the economic status of the majority of low-income populations for the better.10
The public debate about introducing Islamic social finance tools in Ghana, primarily in the form of Islamic banking to complement the conventional banking sector, gained momentum during the 2010s.11 The debate correlated with expansions in Muslim activism coupled with increased engagement in public debates about macro and microeconomic development in Ghana. Some Muslim activists introduce Islamic risk-sharing/non-interest-based financial instruments as a tool for diversifying the Ghanaian economy.12 Others call for Ghana to join the Islamic Development Bank and push for the introduction of Islamic banking as a solution to the post-COVID-19 debt crisis.13
Notwithstanding the public debate, Islamic banking is yet to be introduced in Ghana. However, somewhat unnoticed by the public have been the attempts to introduce other tools of Islamic social finance such as Islamic microfinance, Islamic investment and waqf or pious/religious endowments (pl. awqaf). Although these attempts have not (yet) resulted in any scholarly outputs, they reflect the call by some contemporary Muslim economists to shift from zakat to waqf and Islamic microfinance as effective tools for poverty alleviation.14 Recognising the inflexibility and limitations of zakat, they present waqf as an Islamic open-ended pooling system employed to achieve structural changes and meet the UN Sustainable Development Goals.15 In recent years, the discussion on using Islamic microfinance and waqf as tools for poverty alleviation also reached Ghana,16 although the usage of zakat funds as cash waqf or qard hassan is contested.17
1 Envisioning a Dual Fiscal System for Ghana
The advocacy to modernise traditional forms of Islamic social welfare tools and introduce modern Islamic finance instruments started perhaps in October 2009 at the National Muslim Summit organised by Al-Furqan Foundation in Tamale. At the event, the Nigerian Islamic economist Ahmed (Ahmadu) Bello Dogarawa presented the concept of an Islamic way of poverty alleviation using the capacities and potentials of zakat and waqf.18 Neither of them existed as institutions in Ghana at the time of the summit, although his ideas concerning zakat were in tune with those propounded by Muslim scholars calling for thorough reforms in the collection and distribution of zakat in Ghana. While these debates resulted in the establishment of the Zakat and Sadaqa Trust Fund in 2010, public discussions about introducing and operating waqf in Ghana were more or less absent over the next decade.19
Above all, the 2009 National Muslim Summit introduced a novel idea in the Ghanaian public debate, namely the call to establish Islamic banks in Ghana. Being at this point a mere theoretical concept, Al-Furqan Foundation emerged as the first spearhead for propagating the introduction of Islamic banks and Islamic non-interest bearing instruments as a complementary option for Muslims or at least for conventional banks to open so-called Shariʿa-complement windows. The Foundation’s Nigerian connections proved vital for furthering the introduction of Islamic banking and promoting Islamic economics in Ghana. Al-Furqan Foundation, in the aftermath of the 2009 summit, established an auxiliary organisation, the Ghana Islamic Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GICCI), with its headquarters in Accra,20 and the representatives of both bodies participated in the First West African Investment Forum, held in Kano, Nigeria, in February/March 2011. Several organisations collaborated in organising the Forum, among others, the Islamic Chambers of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture (ICCA), an affiliate of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), the Islamic Development Bank, the Dangote Group of Companies, and the GICCI. One key outcome of the Forum was the idea to establish a regional body for promoting Islamic economics and finance. Following a series of negotiations and the active engagement of the Al-Furqan Foundation and GICC, the Africa Islamic Economic Foundation (AFRIEF) was formally incorporated and registered as an NPO in Ghana in 2013, with headquarters in Tamale and regional offices in Kano and Dubai.21 In the same year, the Global Institute of Islamic Banking, Insurance and Consulting (GIIBIC), a Muslim policy institute for promoting Islamic economics and finance in Ghana, was founded in Accra.22
Al-Furqan Foundation was the brainchild of Ghanaian Muslim scholar and journalist Baba Yunus Muhammad. After completing his studies at the London School of Journalism in the UK and the Fuld-Gilad-Herring Academy of Competitive Intelligence in the USA, he started his career as an Arabic Instructor in Ghana and Nigeria alongside practising journalism in the UK in the 1980s before he joined as a senior research fellow at the Muslim Institute for Research and Planning in London for two years in the late 1980s. Moving thereafter to Nigeria, he became Managing Director at Open Press Nigeria Ltd. In 2004, he founded Al-Furqan Foundation with headquarters in Tamale. In October 2008, he became chair and CEO of Green Oasis Associates Ltd, a Nigerian company.23 Combining his leadership positions in the Ghanaian foundation and the Nigerian company, Baba Yunus Muhammad was the key organiser of the 2011 Forum in Kano and subsequently became President of AFRIEF in 2014.
The Global Institute of Islamic Banking, Insurance and Consulting (GIIBIC), established in 2014, is an initiative of Ghanaian Muslim business development manager Abdul-Muumin Saeed.24 He returned to Ghana in 2013 after pursuing an international managerial career with a Syrian confectionary company, Katakit, and the Sudanese DAL Group. He had finished his diploma and postgraduate studies in Islamic banking and finance at the Institute of Islamic Banking and Insurance (IIBI) in London.25 Thus, while AFRIEF is in close connection with Nigerian stakeholders, GIIBIC advertises its link to IIBI and the Dubai-based Pakistani (Salafi) Muslim policy institution Al-Huda Center of Islamic Banking and Islamic Economics (AlHuda CIBE).26 Interestingly, AlHuda CIBE also lists the 2019-established Accra-based Islamic Finance Research Institute of Ghana (IFRIG) as its strategic partner.27 IFRIG is the third Muslim policy institute spearheading the establishment of a dual financial system, i.e., a conventional and an Islamic one, in Ghana.
1.1 Initial Thrusts for Introducing Islamic Finance in Ghana
Although the objective of both AFRIEF and GIIBIC was to promote Islamic economics, their initial activities differed markedly in scope and direction. Baba Yunus Muhammad’s AFRIEF envisioned engagement on a continental scale while Abdul-Muumin Saeed’s GIIBIC had a national focus. The latter organisation declared itself to be the “first ever company in Ghana” to provide Islamic banking and finance education and announced postgraduate and masters diploma programs on the Islamic finance sector (Islamic banking, Islamic finance, Islamic insurance, Halal industry) being provided by the London-based IIBI.28
None of the two bodies (AFFRIEF or GIIBIC) chose a public media campaign as their strategy. Instead, both focussed on convincing stakeholders in the banking and finance sector. GIIBIC took the lead when it organised a joint seminar in February 2014, with representatives of the Bank of Ghana, followed by a two-day specialised training workshop on Islamic banking, Islamic small and medium enterprises, and Islamic microfinance, jointly organised by GIIBIC and AlHuda CIBE in June 2014. Enthusiastically the organisers announced after the February seminar that the Bank of Ghana was about to review the Banking Act of 2004 to incorporate the concept and governance of Islamic banking and finance. This was a pressing need as applications from Access Bank Ghana and Wenchi Rural Bank to establish Islamic banks in Ghana were pending. Like other commercial banks, the challenge for them was the requirement to keep some of their deposits with the Bank of Ghana, which usually attracts interest that Islamic banks forbid.29
Baba Yunus Muhammad and the AFRIEF, in turn, envisioned a continental outreach. “Every day, Islamic finance is breaking new boundaries and new frontiers,” he enthusiastically declared in an interview in 2014. However, the absence of regulatory frameworks hampered the full implementation of AFRIEF’s agenda in many African countries by. Especially in Christian-majority countries, he noted, African governments found it difficult to convince the population of the rationale for using public funds to hire Muslim consultants, or for the AFRIEF to develop Shariʿa-compliant frameworks and roadmaps for the implementation of an Islamic finance system.30
As a follow up to the positive experience from previous workshops, Baba Yunus Muhammed’s main agenda was to call for a conference on Islamic finance to be organised in Accra in April 2015. Obviously not linked with the activities of GIIBIC, he outlined the Africa Islamic Economic Forum (AIEF) to promote more critical and informal discussions on Islamic economics. The conference was to be structured around six thematic pillars: faith-based instruments and social responsibility, Islamic banking and finance, agriculture, the Halal industry, the development of an investment environment, and renewable energy with a focus on biofuels.31
For reasons not (yet) known, the Africa Islamic Economic Forum was cancelled.32 Perhaps it collided with two similar topical conferences scheduled for 2015, the Second African Islamic Finance Summit (AIFS) organised by Al-Huda CIBE in Dar es-Salaam, Tanzania,33 and the (First) Africa Islamic Finance Forum (AIFF) organised by the Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector, a member of the Islamic Development Bank Group, in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire.34 Interestingly, none of the two conferences listed any Ghanaian speakers or Ghanaian institutions as partners.35
The promising openings of 2014 had ran out of steam a few years later.36 Some Muslim entrepreneurs backed the establishment of Islamic banks in public,37 and the Bank of Ghana informed about processing one application for an Islamic bank in 2015 (instead of two in 2014).38 Muslim civil society organisations, notably the Coalition of Muslim Organisations–Ghana (COMOG), published calls for incorporating Islamic banking and Islamic finance to complement the existing banking and finance system in Ghana.39 A Saudi Arabian institution even announced its interest of starting an Islamic finance institution but noting came out of the plan.40 The GIIBIC, in turn, learnt about national regulations for Islamic banking from Malaysia, Dubai and the UK, and drafted a proposal to the Bank of Ghana in late 2015. In addition, GIIBIC and Al-Huda CIBE organised another workshop that year on Islamic banking for representatives of the Bank of Ghana, the Ministry of Finance, and commercial banks. However, the government’s interest in introducing Islamic banking abated one year after the elections.41
Much to the dismay of all Muslim stakeholders, not much was heard from the Bank of Ghana either. In response to queries on the application process for operating an Islamic bank, in January 2017, the Governor of the Bank of Ghana noted that the new bank law provided an opportunity to trade in Islamic banking products. “You can have a universal banking license and just deal in Islamic financial products, and that makes you an Islamic bank,” he declared. However, in practice, the Governor was not referring to pure Islamic banks but Islamic financial windows operated by conventional banks. He highlighted the possibility of a bank nominating a Shariʿa Advisory Council to provide the bank’s informed operational opinion and advice. Referring to the Bank of Ghana’s application some two years ago, the institution at first received a provisional license. Although the license was initially extended, the Bank of Ghana decided to revoke it as the applying institution could not fulfil all of the conditions required to obtain a full license.42 As there were no further applications pending, preparations for drafting a regulatory framework for introducing Islamic banks in Ghana ranked low on the agenda of the Bank of Ghana. “Islamic banking gathers dust,” declared the Daily Graphic in early May 2018.43
1.2 Popularising Islamic Banking through Advocacy Campaigns
Any observer would have reached the same conclusion as Mohammed Yaw Broni in 2018: The attempts to introduce a dual banking and fiscal system in Ghana seems to have ended in a cul-de-sac. Broni, in his analysis, blamed the lack of devoted Muslim executives, governments’ indifference toward Islamic finance and inertia of Muslim groups as the main reasons for the non-existence of an Islamic banking and finance system in Ghana.44 Similarly, Dr Ramatu Ussif’s and Umar Yussif’s overview of the promises and challenges echoes Mohammed Yaw Broni’s critical assessment.45 While their claim of the non-existence of laws regulating Islamic finance institutions and Shariʿa regulating frameworks is valid, that of the non-existence of Islamic finance professionals and Shariʿa scholars and informed stakeholders is an overstatement. Tellingly, Ussif’s and Yusif’s study relies heavily on Abdul-Muumin Saeed’s positive outlines and positions already presented in 2014. Clearly, as outlined in the previous sections, experts on Islamic banking in Ghana exist. Moreover, new stakeholders were to enter the arena to advocate and sensitise the Muslim and non-Muslim populations about the benefits of a dual financial system. Interestingly, the focus on public outreach and mobilisation echoes the recommendations forwarded in several academic studies,46 among others Amina Sammo’s conclusion that “… religion, awareness, networking and reputation are significantly correlated with adopting Islamic banking in Ghana.”47 One year later, she had turned her advice into practice when she joined the Islamic Finance Research Institute of Ghana (see the discussion below).
The first new stakeholder was the Tamale Institute of Islamic Banking and Finance (TIIFE). Not much is known about the institute as it has left few traces. The only documentation indicating the formation of a new platform is a declaration of its vision, mission and objectives, posted on the Facebook account of the institute in early September 2018. This could indicate that it had been founded a few weeks earlier. Whether or not the TIIFE ever occupied any physical space is uncertain as no further information is provided on Facebook. Similar to the two earlier policy institutes, AFRIEF and GIIBIC, the activists behind TIIFE envisioned the platform to contribute to the development of Islamic finance in Ghana and Africa through research, advocacy, policy analysis, training and general Islamic banking and finance literacy.
In contrast to the AFRIEF and GIIBIC, the TIIFE had distinct northern and Zongo perspectives, particularly to provide innovative evidence-based policy briefs to support various stakeholders such as the Northern Development Authority, Zongo Development Authority and largely to support the Government of Ghana’s development agenda. In addition, collecting and processing relevant data of targeted areas in Ghana, such as Northern Ghana and Zongo communities, contributes to policymaking and intervention works by government and NGO s.48
The next attempt to institutionalise an advocacy group occurred one year later. After a series of discussions, the Ghana Islamic Bank Ideas (GIBI) WhatsApp group transformed and reorganised itself into the Islamic Finance Research Institute of Ghana (IFRIG) in early September 2019. At first, the staff members concentrated on research, and managed to get its study on the prospects and challenges of Islamic banking in Ghana published in an international journal.49 The take-off for IFRIG’s activities was the COVID-19 lockdown during spring 2020 when IFRIG—like multiple other Muslim NGO s and CSO s—started to organise all of its activities as online Zoom webinars and via Facebook.50 Starting in May 2020, IFRIG organised monthly Live Zoom Webinars on Islamic banking and finance with guest lecturers or lectures by its staff members. IFRIG caught at an early stage the interest of al-Huda CIBE,51 and from July 2020, members of the latter organisation regularly featured in the Live Zoom Webinars.
Apart from its Islamic Finance Zoom Webinars, IFRIG initially planned to organise weekly topical training sessions. However, after the first training session on waqf as an effective tool in the social finance sector for social development and economic development projects in late June 2020, IFRIG seems to have dropped the idea. Instead, it started to collaborate with other Muslim stakeholders to expand its activities. Together with the Islamic University College Ghana and the Madina Institute of Science and Technology (MIST), IFRIG organised the Islamic Finance Forum in early November 2020. In terms of publicity, the Islamic Finance Forum was a success as it was noted in Ghanaian news media and put Islamic finance back on the public agenda.52 In February 2021, IFRIG organised a specialised training for ulama on Islamic finance in Accra, and another in Takoradi in early April 2021, followed by a two-day specialised training for graduate students and professionals at MIST in Accra in mid-April 2021.53
IFRIG further extended its partnership drive, joining hands with the International Centre for Islamic Culture and Education, the Zakat and Sadaqa Trust Fund of Ghana, the International Institute of Islamic Banking and Finance and MIST, and organised the Second Annual Forum on Islamic Finance, renamed as the Islamic Finance International Conference 2021, in Accra in early November 2021.54 After the previous conference, IFRIG had managed to publish several articles or interviews summarising some of the topics presented on its Zoom Webinars, among others the feasibility of opening Islamic finance windows in conventional banks alongside highlighting the potential of a dual system to unlock investments from the Middle East.55
Therefore, it was not surprising that the announcement of the 2021 Islamic Finance International Conference made headlines, especially as it was expected to bring together Islamic finance experts from Ghana, West Africa, and the Arab world and feature keynote speakers from Nigeria, Malaysia, and the UAE.56 The conference was a success, and some experts even declared Islamic finance a solution to Ghana’s rising public debt.57 Even the Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr Ernest Addison, was positive about Islamic finance although he cautioned the dangers of overlooking the potential challenges of the Islamic finance system, such as transparency, disclosure and legal frameworks, still being unresolved in Ghana.58
Half a year later, the prospective for the establishment of an Islamic bank looked better. Hopes were raised at the IFRIG Ramadan Islamic Finance Forum but the fulfilment of this dream needed a substantial commitment of the Muslim communities. About GHS 400 million was needed to meet the financial obligations of the Bank of Ghana, informed Naa Alhassan Andani, a former Chief Executive Office of Stanbic Bank.59 However, the macro-economic turmoil unleashed by the COVID-19 pandemic and the Ukrainian crisis caused the Ghanaian economy to slump and put a break to plans to the introduction of Islamic banking in Ghana in the near future. At the second Islamic Finance International Conference in December 2022, the issue was still unresolved. IFRIG subsequently renewed it effort to push its agenda, among others by publishing a report on the feasibility of introducing non-interest banking and finance in Ghana in February 2023,60 alongside arranging a set of webinars and seminars on the topic, among others the IFRIG Ramadan Islamic Forum 2023 as well as a one-day seminar on Lakeside University in July 2023.61
2 Islamic Investment and Microfinance
Muslim economists have hailed Islamic investment and microfinance institutions as effective tools for poverty reduction, although recent investigations have outlined a more nuanced analysis of their potential for achieving their objectives. Although no full-fledged Islamic banks received any licence to operate in Ghana by 2019, Joseph Mbawuni noted the existence of two licensed Islamic microfinance institution, Ghana Islamic Microfinance and Salam Capital.62 In addition, and not included in Mbawuni’s coverage, there were at least two Islamic halal (ethical) investment initiatives, Islamic Investment Ltd and MUDI Halal Co-operative Society, alongside at least one microfinance company, Afro-Arab Microfinance, that recently introduced Islamic finance tools.
The penetration of Islamic microfinance into mainstream financing is very shallow, and its share in the global Islamic finance industry falls below one per cent.63 In sub-Saharan countries with well-established Islamic banking sectors, such as Nigeria, Islamic microfinance constitutes but a minor part of the total lending portfolio of banks except for a few ones that specialised in microcredit lending. The Apex Bank has shut down about one-fourth of the 900 Nigerian microfinance banks due to misappropriation of deposits and violation of guidelines.64 Ghanaian investment and microcredit institutions face similar challenges, not least their restricted access to capital and the uncertainty of long-term investments.
Ghana Islamic Microfinance (GIMF) was the first of its kind to provide Shariʿa compliant microfinance service in Ghana. Starting as a project of the NGO Edikanfo Progressive Foundation with seed money of USD 5 million, GIMF’s rationale was to receive a return on its investments from profit-sharing arrangements with its clients. Initially, it planned to offer such products as loans for education or medical services, loans for customers to repay other microloans with high interest rates and Hajj savings accounts to support religious pilgrimages. GIMF commenced operations in September 2010, with headquarters located in Accra and branch offices in Kumasi and Tamale.65 The organisation was run by a three-person management team and supervised by a five-person Board of Directors.66 Its initial Shariʿa supervisory board consisted of four renowned Muslim scholars on Shariʿa and Islamic jurisprudence, chaired by the National Chief Imam of the Ahlus-Sunna Wal Jamaʿa Sheikh Umar Ibrahim Iman.67 In 2011, GIMF and Islamic microfinance organisations in Iraq, Jordan, Yemen, Mauritius and Kazakhstan formed the Islamic Microfinance Network (IMFN), with head office in Lahore, Pakistan, and regional offices projected in Ghana, Mauritius and the Middle East.68
GIMF outlined its key objectives to assist the poor, raise awareness about Islamic microfinance, discourage predatory loan practices in Ghana, and promote innovation and integrity in microfinancing in Ghana.69 During its first years of operation, the institution offered microfinance products to Muslims and non-Muslims and structured its savings and account products on wadiah (safekeeping) contract.70 Its investment products included, among others, ‘Halal Livestock Mudarabaha’ intended for goat and sheep farming, ‘Asset Salam’ for purchasing maise and groundnut at affordable prices, ‘Ijarah’ for the rent of farmlands and repayment in the form of cultivated crops, and ‘Istisna’ to support smallholders in training, production and marketing of their farm products.71 A special focus group of GIMF has been smallholder women farmers who have received interest free loans for the provision of inputs, extension services, tractor services, and marketing against a guaranteed purchase price for their crops. The Islamic Development Bank recognized this scheme and awarded GIMF the Women’s For Development Award in 2014.72 However, for unknown reasons, GIMF became defunct soon after having received the Saudi award.73
The second Islamic microfinance institution in Ghana is Salam Capital Microfinance, which began as a start-up venture to provide alternative banking and microfinance solutions in 2013; it was transformed one year later into an institution to provide Islamic solutions for the modern and emerging markets.74 However, information on its operations had not been gathered at the time of this publication. It was not listed among existing Shariʿa-compliant financial institutions as of 2015,75 although there were claims of it still being operational as of 2019.76 In February 2022, the homepage of Salam Capital,
Afro-Arab Microfinance is one of the six subsidiaries of Alhaji Salamu Adamu’s Afro-Arab Group (Figure 55).77 He had established the first his companies at an age of 20 in 2007.78 In 2017, he started to make headlines in Ghanaian news media when he declared his support for Zongo Youth Month,79 and was shortlisted among the 40 under 40 Awards.80 In 2018, he was named ‘most influential person in Nima’;81 in 2019, the West African Leadership Development Centre for Development ranked him among the top ten emerging leaders in West Africa,82 whereas YCEO & Avance Media ranked him among the top 50 Young CEO s in Ghana.83 Hailed as an influential business entrepreneur,84 his philanthropic and societal engagement has been widely recognized. In 2021, the Muslim Group of Ghana awarded him Zongo Youth Entrepreneur of the Year as a recognition for his impact and him serving as a role model, mentor and teacher to the Zongo youth.85 In the same year, the Ghana Financial Intermediation honoured him ‘Outstanding Personality’ by for his engagement in the microfinance sector.86
Figure 55
Afro-Arab Micro-Finance Ltd. Head office in Nima, Accra
Photo: Holger Weiss/2019
The Afro-Arab Microfinance started full operations in 2011, providing agribusiness loans, community banking, fast SME loans, business/personal loans and savings accounts. It is a Tier-2 microfinance company, licensed by the Bank of Ghana under the supervision of the Other Financial Institution Supervision Department, OFISD. The company was among the few Ghanaian microfinance institutions that survived the clean-up exercise of the Bank of Ghana in 2019.87 One year earlier, it had launched a specially designed product for mosque communities, and Islamic schools as well as Muslim and Zongo groups to save with the company and secure interest-free loans. Labelled the Masalachi Account, the product followed the ethos of Islamic banking as it provided interest-free loans or charges on interest on monies saved on this account.88 In 2021, the company expanded its field of operation by providing support to youth and women groups to develop their ideas into small-scale/micro businesses and start-ups.89 One year later, Afro-Arab Microfinance started its process to transform itself into a full-fledged Islamic bank when it organized a three days staff training on Islamic Finance supervised by the Islamic Finance Research Institute of Ghana (IFRIG).90
Other local NGO-initiated Islamic investment programmes had hitherto received scant interest. The Pakistani banker G.M. Shahid’s NGO First Islamic Micro Finance Institute is a case in point: after having launched the initiative in April 2019, its founder claimed it to be the first one of its kind in Ghana and made a call to philanthropists for support on LinkedIn.91 No further news about the initiative have so far (December 2023) been found on the internet. Others call for investments in small-scale agricultural cultivation. These are, among others, Farming for the Needy initiative of the Kumasi-based Muslim Access Movement,92 and the cashew farming projects of the Islamic Mission Secretariat in Nkoranza, Bono East Region and Jaman South, Bono Region.93 Furthermore, the 9-acre ‘Maize Farm for Charity’ of the Agogo-based Friends of the needy to assist the needy and vulnerable in the community, depend on volunteered time and effort to cultivate the farms,94 and distribute the produce to needy, poor and aged persons. The Justice Yateem Foundation, a UK-Ghanaian Muslim NGO founded in 2019 and based in Ejura, generates funds for its local orphans support scheme by investing in farming and transport ventures.95
ICODEHS, on the other hand, announces on its homepage to hand out interest-free loans to women to engage in income-generating activities.96 The programme is a community-led loan scheme for women to undertake small-scale projects, including palm oil plantation, bakery, sewing, dyeing, tree planting, and mushroom and snail farming.97 However, the funds available for microfinance depend on the amount earmarked for this charity by its external donors (at least Qatar Charity has been funding this programme since 2005).98 Al-Mumin Foundation, too, launched a micro-level enterprise scheme for widows in February 2019, and started by donating seven commercial kiosks fully furnished alongside cash donations to start their businesses.99 GIIBIC likewise runs a Shariʿa-compliant microfinance scheme based on a profit-loss basis. In 2019, the scheme supported five farming committees in the Ashanti and Northern Regions, donating some 150 sheep as investment for an animal committee in the Northern Region, alongside supporting five hundred small and medium women enterprises.100
The Kumasi-based Islamic Investment Fund Ltd has made headlines since its inception in October 2015 by Sheikh Dr Ismail Saeed, the ASWAJ Ashanti Regional Imam (Figure 56). The Fund is a Shariʿa compliant financial system aimed at mobilising funds from the Muslim community toward communal development and youth employment. For instance, in an initial public offering of 200 shares at a share value of GHS 500 (ca. USD 81) per share, the Fund raised GHS 100,000 (ca. USD 16,000), with which it established an investment plan comprising three minimum-risk tools in its portfolio. The first component of its investment portfolio relates to short-term businesses such as cattle rearing, a car washing bay and cash-crop farming. The second is medium-term investment, especially in transportation and commodity trading. The third one is long-term investment in real estate development, Islamic microfinance, project financing and venture capital.101
Figure 56
Islamic Investment Fund Ltd. Head office in Kumasi, next to the ASWAJ regional office
Photo: Holger Weiss/2018
The objective of the Islamic Investment Fund, Sheikh Dr Ismail Saeed underlined in a newspaper interview, was to provide an option for Muslims to go into “ethical investment” and to mobilise funds from the local Muslim community, channelled at creating jobs for the unemployed youth:
We are using it as a starter to pull all our resources together, and when they start getting something, then in future when it becomes a bank it will be an encouragement for them [members of the ASWAJ community] to invest.102
The objective is to raise funds from the Muslim community in Kumasi to establish a Halal business. Ishaq Kantier, the secretary of the Islamic Investment Fund, explained that these donations are either zakat or sadaqa as, “zakat comes out automatically as it is donated by a Muslim for a Muslim purpose.”103 So far, the initiative is still in its pilot phase and is concentrated in Kumasi. In the next phase, similar initiatives will be replicated and launched by ASWAJ groups throughout the country. Its first and hitherto only project was the Kumasi Bakery, established in October 2016 (Figure 57), which was largely financed via financial support from the Kuwaiti international charity Direct Aid.104 The project was initially successful but ran into trouble when one of its tricycles was stolen in March 2017.105 Lack of investments forced its closure by 2019. The fate of the bakery is illustrative of the structural challenges that small-scale community-based projects are facing. The bakery faced two bottlenecks, namely rising wage costs and lacking infrastructure for the distribution of its products. The latter of the bottlenecks especially proved an unsolvable challenge: the bakery needed a vehicle to distribute its bread, but the Islamic Investment Fund lacked the funds to buy one. Finally, the board of the Fund ended the project, although the bakery project has not been abandoned as such; it has been redrafted and planned to be launched as a “shared investment project”.106
Figure 57
ASWAJ bakery project in Kumasi
Photo: Holger Weiss/2018
Consequently, as of October 2022, Islamic Investment was still working on restarting the bakery project and making it a profitable venture.107 Already in 2019, they had established an investment committee and embarked on a new project. An Arab philanthropist had invested in drilling three wells and handed them over to the organisation as waqf; the plan was to produce bottled water for sale from the wells.108 Unfortunately, similar to the bakery project, the idea to transform the wells into a waqf backfired. Ishaq Kantier, the Secretary of Islamic Investment, blames the setbacks of the group to its lack for engaging a person with a solid expertise in business and entrepreneurship in the committee. Consequently, “Islamic Investment is not active at the moment,” he explained to me in October 2022.109
The most recent halal (ethical) investment programme inaugurated by a Muslim NGO is that of the Muslim Ummah Development Initiative (MUDI) Group. Starting by introducing various investment models such as MUDI Farms (cashew, soya beans, livestock farming),110 MUDI Kiddie Invest and MUDI HajiUmra Services Ltd, it launched the MUDI Multi-Purpose Co-operative Society Ltd in 2019. Operating in Accra, Kumasi and Tamale, its aim is to pool the contributions of its members and enable them to get funds from the pool without having to pay interest on the loan.111 Participation in MUDI Group is either by joining as a shareholder or an investor; the former becomes a part-owner of MUDI Farms Ltd (Figure 58) and MUDI HajjUmra Services Ltd. The latter acquires one or more acres of cashew farms, and MUDI manages it; the profits after three years are shared with MUDI proportionally after all deductions, including taxes and zakat.112
Figure 58
MUDI Farms Ltd. Leaflet informing about MUDI Cashew Investment, a project of MUDI Farms Ltd
Author’s collection
The modus operandi of a MUDI cooperative is that a minimum of ten like-minded people come together to float a cooperative society, which is registered with the Department of Cooperatives. The members elect the cooperative leaders, and each member is committed to a fixed or variable monthly contribution. The funds collected are administered by the society and invested in halal ventures. Return from the investments are used to run the day-to-day activities of the society, and at the end of the year, dividends are paid to members based on their shareholding. Apart from providing interest-free loans, the society can help members help make household purchases and engage in the joint purchase of landed property for resale to a member. It further has a Hajj investment plan to assist members in accumulating money through regular instalments for the performance of Hajj or Umrah, alongside Kiddie Invest, a fund to cater to children’s future and inculcate savings and investment culture in members’ children.113 Finally, in July 2021, MUDI launched the MUDI Halal Investment Expo to sensitise Muslim investors to start interest-free and ethical investments. Scheduled to take place in January 2022, the Expo seeks to create a platform for Muslim entrepreneurs to exhibit ethical products and services to both Muslims and non-Muslims.114
3 Waqf and sadaqa jariya
The waqf (pl. awqaf) or religious endowment is rare in sub-Saharan Africa, remarked John Hunwick more than twenty years ago in his overview of Islamic financial institutions. “To the best of my knowledge, no study of the waqf institution in sub-Saharan Africa exists, either from a general perspective or of a particular instance of its operation,” he further noted.115 Two decades later, the situation has more or less changed, and awaqf have been established to support public institutions such as clinics and orphanages in several countries and as a tool for poverty alleviation and the meeting of the Sustainable Development Goals.116
The recent interest in the establishment of awqaf reflects a global trend. Existing as permanent private endowments either as a family waqf (waqf ahli) or a charitable or public waqf (waqf khayri) for centuries in Muslim, it generally consisted of a piece of property capable of producing financial benefit, typically a piece of land, a house or a shop that might be rented to generate income. While the proceeds of a waqf ahli are restricted for family members, those of a waqf khayri went to the upkeep of mosques, madrasas, public fountains, or hospitals. The waqf institution declined during the nineteenth century, in part due to mismanagement of individual awqaf, and in part due to the modernisation (Westernisation) of jurisprudence as well as changes in land and property rights in Muslim countries.117
However, the upsurge of Islamic economics during the last decades of the twentieth century resulted in a revival of discourses on waqf. Spurred by this discourse, waqf became an integral part of mainstream Islamic finance discourse, hailed to be an alternative in solving the socio-economic problems in contemporary Muslim societies.118 Its resurface on a global scale was the establishment of the World Waqf Foundation by the Islamic Development Bank in 2001.119 Since then, research on waqf has increased tremendously, introducing innovations such as cash waqf,120 waqf crowdfunding models,121 and even proposals for a global cash waqf.122
The resurgence of waqf is also a noted phenomenon in Muslim-minority countries. An interesting case is the Myint Myat Phu Zin Clinic, established in 2009 in Mandalay, Myanmar, and could serve as a model for the various ongoing Islamic hospital projects in Ghana outlined in the previous chapters. It is the first Islamic clinic in the country, funded by zakat and sadaqa donations from Muslims and charity donations from non-Muslims; its founders donated the land upon which the clinic is built as waqf.123 This parallels the strategies of various international Muslim NGO s, both Western and non-Western, who call on their members and donors to invest in sadaqa jariya, defined as endless, ongoing or recurring charity. “Technically, Sadaqah Jariyah comes under the Islamic legal category of waqf, or endowment,” the Zakat Foundation of America notes on its homepage.124 “Sadaqah Jariyah projects are those projects that support the recipients and future generations for a long time, and thus giving the donor ongoing reward,” underscores the UK NGO Muslim Charity.125 “Sadaqah Jariyah will benefit the recipients more than once and that good deed will continue rewarding you even after your death,” assures UK NGO Muslim Hands.126 Ultimately, the concept of sadaqa jariya rests in the tradition of the Prophet Muhammad (“make it an endowment and give its produce as charity [alternatively: In the cause of Allah]”), and is outlined in several hadiths in canonical collections, such as those of Sahih al-Bukhari,127 Bulugh al-Maram,128 and Ibn Majah.129 Based on these hadiths, Muslim scholars have declared that donating money for building mosques, hospitals, and orphanages, drilling wells or planting trees merit as sadaqa jariya, as does designing a house or place as waqf so that its income is spent on the poor, orphans, relatives (in case of a family waqf), and seekers of knowledge.130
From a Muslim donor’s perspective, any mosque, educational, health or water project initiated by a Muslim NGO is potential sadaqa jariya. Technically, as noted above, they resemble religious endowments or awqaf, although few NGO s advertise on their homepages to have established outright religious endowments. This most likely has to do with modern national codes of law, private property rights, (colonial and post-colonial) state interference with normative practices of awqaf, and the establishment of permanent endowments in Muslim and non-Muslim countries. In Ghana, none of the numerous mosques or wells funded by external Muslim donors have been commissioned as waqf projects until the arrival of the Indonesian Global Waqaf-ACT when it declared to build so-called waqf wells in the Ashanti Region in 2021.131
The engagement of the Indonesian NGO parallels that of the Az-Zaituna Academy in the USA who held eight webinars in Hausa on Waqf Management directed to Ghanaian participants during autumn 2021.132 Together with its local collaborators, the Ummah Waqf Fund and the Nuriyah Waqf Agribusiness, it launched an orientation program titled “The institutions of waqf and its potential to the socio-economic development of the Ghanaian Ummah” via Zoom in early January 2022.133
Obviously, the activities of the two organisations are coincidental, and at least the local organisers of the Waqf Management Webinars were not aware of any other existing waqf organisations in Ghana apart from the Waqf Fund of the Ahlus-Sunna Wal-Jamaʿa (ASWAJ), see below. However, although the ASWAJ project at times made headlines, it is not the only existing waqf project. The Ghana Islamic Society for Education and Reformation (GISER) Endowment Fund built twenty stores in Madina (Accra) in 2006 and 2011; the income generated from the rents of these awqaf is used to financially support the Madina Islamic School (MIS) in Accra.134 The Ghana Muslim Mission (GMM) has four so-called social intervention programmes, including an Endowment Fund, a Widow and Orphans Fund, an Education and Health Fund and an Entrepreneurship Fund. The various programmes are largely funded through internally generated donations and monthly membership fees.135 At least the GMM hospital in Beposo and the Asumpa Bakery in Kumasi have been established as waqf.136 Other investments of the GMM are in bottled water fabrication and in kiosks that are rented out to small-scale business entrepreneurs.137 In 2023, the GMM Greater Accra Branch started a fundraising programme for a new water manufacturing company to be established in Samsam, Greater Accra Region. This company, too, is envisioned to accommodate income to the Mission.138
The National Imam of the Ahlus-Sunna Sheikh Umar Ibrahim Imam, has been one of the most ardent propagators of introducing waqf in Ghana. In 2005, he established an endowment fund, the Al-Waqf Endowment Fund, alongside the ‘You Too Can Build Company Ltd’ (Figure 59), the latter concentrating on real estate development in the Zongos.139 As these plans were slow to mature, he (re-)launched the Ahlussunna Wal Jamaʿa Waqf (Endowment) Fund in December 2009. In early 2010, a branch of the Fund was set up in Takoradi by Sheikh Suleman Ahmed Mozu, ASWAJ Regional Imam Western Region, who made a plea to Muslims to invest one Ghana cedi in the Fund for five years.140 Other branches were established in Kumasi and Bolgatanga simultaneously,141 indicating a decentralised and regional structure of the Waqf Fund.
Figure 59
You Too Can Build Company. Leaflet informing about the initiative
Author’s collection
Sheikh Umar Ibrahim Imam’s vision was to create a mutual charitable waqf;142 80 per cent of its collected funds were to be earmarked for future investments, 15 per cent for commissioning collectors and 5 per cent for administrative costs.143 In a call to the Ahlus-Sunna community, he opined that the three major enemies of human beings are ignorance, poverty and disease. “So we must come together […] to create a permanent fund for development,” he declared and outlined his vision for his Waqf Fund:
Because we cannot use the seed money to develop Inner cities and Zongo, but we can use the seed money to build an endowment within one and half years, and then the amount that will generate from the endowment will be used for development of Inner Cities and Zongo forever, and this can be based in two major cities in Ghana, that is Accra and Kumasi because of high cost of rent. Kumasi will be attached to four other regions, and the same to Greater Accra Region and we will name it endowment for Inner Cities and Zongo Development Fund and this can be supported by the government and not to be changed by any succeeding government. Those of us who live in the Inner Cities and Zongo are poor because we can sell our land as properties, but unfortunately, we do not invest on it. Allah said (Quran 77:25–26): Have we not made the earth a container of the living and the dead. So we must invest on our lands and in our children.144
To further his vision of Muslim self-help and empowerment, he relaunched the ‘You Too Can Build’ initiative to inspire and motivate local Muslim communities to invest in their housing infrastructure.145
Initially, Sheikh Umar Ibrahim Imam’s Waqf Fund raised GHS 40,000 (ca. USD 6,500) during the first year.146 However, it took several years for the Fund to develop into a concrete project. Finally, in 2012 he managed to procure a parcel of land at the cost of GHS 33,000 (ca. USD 5,300) to construct a student hostel near the Accra campus of the University of Winneba (Figure 60).147 He earmarked this piece of land as a waqf. The aims and objectives of the endowment were, first, to build houses for rentals and use the income to help Muslim scholars further their knowledge and raise the living standards in the Zongo communities by building schools, mosques, wells and health clinics. However, not much happened, and for years it looked as if the whole project had been shelved.148 Some years later, one commentator was utterly critical of the whole initiative and asked what had happened to the money that ordinary Muslims had monthly donated to the Fund. In his view, the Waqf Fund had failed its aims and objectives; no hostels, schools, mosques or wells had ever been built. His main critique, however, was the Waqf Fund’s lack of transparency, synergy and accountability, blaming it on mismanagement of resources: “This system of Waqf is nothing but a disguised hyena placed in a flock of sheep.”149
Figure 60
ASWAJ Waqf foundation hostel project. Sheikh Umar Ibrahim Imam’s prospect shown to author
Photo: Holger Weiss/2019
Sheikh Umar Ibrahim Imam, in turn, had not lost hope in his project.150 In May 2018, the Islamic Centre For Community Affairs in Accra launched a fundraising campaign for the Islamic Endowment & Education Project (IEEP).151 As a result, the hostel project started to materialise and was planned to be commissioned in late 2020.152
Figure 61
ASWAJ Waqf Foundation contribution coupon
Author’s collection
The ASWAJ Ashanti Region Waqf Fund (Figure 61) faced similar challenges as Sheikh Umar Ibrahim’s initiative in Accra. After a promising start, donations to the ASWAJ Ashanti Region Waqf Fund dwindled, and it soon ceased to operate completely. However, instead of finally terminating the project, the Regional Imam tasked the Waqf Committee to revive it. The Waqf Committee, in turn, made a thorough investigation of the financial assets and accounts of the Waqf Fund in 2013. The investigation report must have been shocking: whereas the Waqf Committee identified 480 receipt booklets, only 335 were submitted for verification and assessment. The total number of contributors could not be verified as some of the collectors had not submitted all booklets to the Waqf Committee for verification. Further, the number of certificates issued to those who had completed the cycle could not be verified because the certificates had been printed and issued at the Regional Imam’s office, and no records were available. Even worse, not all collectors had paid their total collections into the Waqf Account. Its total balance stood at GHS 43,834.55 (ca. USD 7,100) as of 31 May 2013.153
The report of the Waqf Committee’s Investigation pointed toward several shortcomings of the initiative. First, it lacked policies and guidelines to regulate the proper implementation of the project. Second, there were no controls for issuing documents and accounting for the collections. Consequently, auditing the collectors was difficult, if not impossible. Third, the project had been launched, the account had been opened, and the collectors had been selected before nominating an overseeing and monitoring Committee. Fourth, no budget was available for the Committee to conduct its operations. Some collectors had not deposited their collections into the bank account; neither had they presented their completed receipt booklets and other materials to the Waqf Secretary for verification. Not surprisingly, rumours started to spread about suspicions of malfeasance and misapplication of the Waqf Funds. As an outcome, the ASWAJ imams stopped propagating the project in their sermons.154
Nevertheless, the Waqf Committee propagated for the relaunching of the project. To correct the structural shortcomings of the initial project, the Waqf Committee called for a policy document and code of conduct for officeholders, which should be adopted by the National Imam of the ASWAJ as the guiding principle nationwide. In addition, it called for a national database and website to ensure the project’s credibility.155 The ASWAJ Ashanti Region Waqf Fund, in turn, was to be thoroughly reorganised. Each of the eleven Sector Mosques in the region should nominate only one collector who was to be supervised by the Zonal Imam or the Zonal Imam’s Financial Secretary. All collectors and supervisors were to be trained to understand the processes before commencing the project. Collectors outside Kumasi were to submit their weekly collections to the Zonal Imam and his Financial Secretary for assessment and approval, while those in Kumasi were to pay their weekly collections to the ASWAJ Regional Secretariat for assessment and approval. The collectors were to be paid 15 per cent of their collections after submitting their reports and collections to the Zonal Imam and his Financial Secretary. The Zonal Imam and his Financial Secretary would deduct 5 per cent of the contributions and pay the remaining 80 per cent into the Waqf bank account. Finally, the Waqf Committee was obliged to submit Quarterly Reports to the Advisory Council and the Daʿawah Committee through the Regional Imam.156
The original objective of the ASWAJ Ashanti Region Waqf Fund was to invest its assets in a piece of land in Kumasi, build a student hostel, and establish structures for social development. However, nothing came out of these plans due to the high land prices in Kumasi, and the money remained unused in the bank account. In turn, the plan for the reorganised waqf was less ambitious. The idea was to invest its assets in agricultural land in Wa or in Tamale.157 Nevertheless, Sheikh Ismaʿil Saeed, Regional Imam of ASWAJ and the Sakafiya Community in Kumasi, succeeded to establish a waqf fund for the Sakafiya Senior Secondary School; the main part of the funding comes from Saudi Arabian philanthropists.158
However, the reorganised ASWAJ Ashanti Region Waqf Fund failed to develop into a successful project. By 2018, the leadership of the ASWAJ Ashanti Region, therefore, decided to restructure its social development programmes and invited an expert from Sokoto, Nigeria. The outcome of the discussions was the merger of the previous projects into the ASWAJ Ashanti Region Zakat, Waqf and Sadaqa Fund (see also Chapter 5.3.3). Existing waqf endowments in South Africa and Malaysia were used as models to redraft the regulations of the new waqf programme.159 The new ASWAJ Ashanti Region Zakat, Waqf and Sadaqa Fund has a decentralised structure.160 The long-term plans for waqf investments are threefold: 1) to build a clinic in Kumasi (land has already been bought); 2) to build a conference centre, and 3) to establish vocational training centres for women. In addition, the Fund plans to relaunch its homepage as an attempt to increase the transparency and outreach of its activities.161
The long decadal propagation by ASWAJ scholars and imams for using waqf as an additional tool for Muslim empowerment underscores the challenges for generating a broad acceptance for Islamic social finance even among its their own followers. As late as June 2021, Sheikh Salman Mohammed Alhanssan, ASWAJ Chief Imam of Madina-West, called on his community to register on the Waqf Fund and pay monthly contributions to it as a way to secure a better future for them.162 The above-mentioned Webinar series on waqf management by the Az-Zaituna Academy, alongside the campaigns to introduce Islamic banking in Ghana in 2021, constitute interesting openings in the contemporary drive for self-empowerment of the Muslim community in Ghana. Their impact and outcome will be the objective of future investigations.
President Nana Akufo-Addo established the Zongo Development Fund (ZoDF) together with the Ministry of Inner Cities and Zongo in 2017. The Fund received over USD 50 million in seed funding to support critical infrastructure in education and training, health and sanitation, local businesses and centres of culture, as well as improve security in the Zongo communities. See further
Fusheini Hudu, “The Role of Muslim NGO s in Sustaining the Zongo Development Agenda,” The Baraka, Third edition (February 2018): 42–47.
Abdul-Hamid and Amadu, “Islam and Ghana’s Sustainable Development Agenda,” 132, 142.
Ibrahim and Billah, “Poverty Alleviation through Islamic Social Finance in Agro-sectors,” 137–154. For a similar argument on introducing Islamic financial institutions to empower rural smallholders in northern Nigeria, see Ibrahim Mohammed Lawal, “The Role of Cash Waqf in Achieving a Mechanized Agriculture in Nigeria,” Journal of Islamic Banking and Finance 36, no. 2 (2019): 68–79.
Issa Faye, Thouraya Triki, and Thierry Kangoye, “The Islamic Finance Promise: Evidence from Africa,” Review of Development Finance 3, no. 3 (2013): 136–151; A. Maghbul and R. Hassan, “Microcredit Supply Under Islamic Banking in Khartoum State, Sudan,” Southern African Business Review 21 (2017): 409–410.
A.O. Abudu, Islamic Economics for the Layperson (Accra: Dyno-Media, 1996).
See further Zamir Iqbal and Abbas Mirakhor (eds.), Economic Development and Islamic Finance (Washington DC: The World Bank, 2013), available at
Islamic finance rests on the principle of prohibiting interest (riba), avoiding gambling (maysir) and uncertainty (gharar) coupled with the concept of profit and loss sharing. In addition, Islamic finance stipulates that financial transactions must be directly or indirectly linked to a real economic transaction. Its main instruments are various forms of partnership financing, including mudaraba (trust financing or provision of capital in partial equity partnership), murabaha (cost-plus-mark up), musharaka (profit and loss sharing; full equity partnership), alongside ijara (lease financing), salam/bai salam (advance sale purchase), istisna (manufacturing contract) and qard hassan (benevolent loan). See further Joseph Mbawuni and Simon Nimako, “Introduction of Islamic Banking and Finance in Ghana: Opportunities and Challenges,” Journal of Islamic Banking and Finance 4, no. 1 (2016): 61; Abdul-Hamid and Amadu, “Islam and Ghana’s Sustainable Development Agenda:” 138–140.
United Nations Development Programme, Istanbul International Center for Private Sector Development and Islamic Research and Training Institute, I For Impact: Blending Islamic Finance and Investing for the Global Goals, March 2017,
Syedah Ahmad, Robert Lensink, and Annika Mueller, “The Bouble Bottom Line of Microfinance: A global Comparison between Conventional and Islamic Microfinance,” World Development 136, no. 5 (2020), online 25.8.2020,
Mbawuni and Nimako, “Introduction of Islamic Banking and Finance in Ghana;” Joseph Mbawuni and Simon Nimako, “Determinants of Islamic Banking Adoption in Ghana,” International Journal of Islamic and Middle Eastern Finance and Management 10, no. 2 (2017): 264–288; Joseph Mbawuni and Simon Gyasi Niamko, “Muslim and Non-Muslim Consumers’ Perception towards Introduction of Islamic Banking in Ghana,” Journal of Islamic Accounting and Business Research 9, no. 3 (2018): 353–377; Suʿun, Bayu Taufiq Possumah, Michael Karikari Appiah and Nurul Hilmiyah, “Determinants of Islamic Banking Adoption Across Different Religious Groups in Ghana: A Panoptic Perspective,” Journal of International Studies 11, no. 4 (2018): 138–154; Abdul-Hamid and Amadu, “Islam and Ghana’s Sustainable Development Agenda.”
Baba Yunus Muhammad, “Why Ghana Must Embrace Islamic Finance,” Africa Islamic Finance Report 1, no. 2 (April–June 2016): 25–27; Mustapha Sarbeng, “Islamic Finance and Food Security in Ghana,” 20.3.2017,
Abdul-Jalil Ibrahim, “The push for Islamic finance development in Ghana,” Islamic Finance News 22.12.2020,
Mohamed Aslam Haneef et al., “Integration of Waqf-Islamic Microfinance Model for Poverty Reduction: The Case of Bangladesh,” International Journal of Islamic and Middle Eastern Finance and Management 8, no. 2 (2015): 246–270; Niaz Ahmed Khan and Sultana Jareen, “The Waqf and Human Security in Muslim Majority Countries: Traditions, Modern Practices, and Challenges,” in Human Security and Philanthropy: Islamic Perspectives and Muslim Majority Country Practices, ed. Samiul Hasan (New York: Springer, 2015), 183–204; Fatima Rasheed, “Microfinance Institutions and Human Security in Muslim Majority Countries: Achievements and Challenges,” in Human Security and Philanthropy: Islamic Perspectives and Muslim Majority Country Practices, ed. Samiul Hasan (New York: Springer, 2015): 205–230; Ajaz Ahmed Khan, Bridget Kustin, and Khalid Khan, “Islamic Financing Principles and their Application to Microfinance,” in Islamic Microfinance: Shariʿah Compliant and Sustainable?, eds. Malcolm Harper, and Ajaz Ahmed Khan (Burton on Dunsmore, Rugby, Warwickshire: Practical Action Publishing, 2017), 1–13.
Nur Atikah Atan and Fuadah Binti Johari, “A Review on Literature of Waqf for Poverty Alleviation between 2006–2016,” Library Philosophy and Practice 1486 (e-journal; June 2017)
“Islamic microfinance a key tool for financial inclusion, poverty alleviation—Prof Binta,” 14.3.2021,
Alhaji Alhasan Abdulai and Muhammad Zubair Mughal, “The future of Islamic microfinance institutions,” 11.7.2015,
Ahmed Bello Dogarawa, Poverty Alleviation through Zakah and Waqf Institutions: A Case for the Muslim Ummah in Ghana, 2009, available at mpra.uni-muenchen.de/23191.
See further Chapter 5.3.1.
“History of AFRIEF,”
It is unlikely that the launching of two Muslim stakeholders more or less at the same time was an outcome of a planned and coordinated combined effort. Both organisations established Facebook accounts soon after their formal registration but any signs or notes about coordination or cooperation between the two units was (and has been) absent on social media. One reason for this could be the different outlook and linkages of the two units and their founding members.
Information retrieved from Baba Yunus Muhammad’s profile on LinkedIn,
Interview with Abdul-Muumin Saeed, CEO of Global Institute of Islamic Banking, Insurance and Consultancy, Kumasi, 14.12.2019.
“Interest-free Islamic banks to heighten competition in Ghana’s banking sector,” 25.3.2014,
“Reaching One Billion,” Banker Africa, 30.6.2014, available at
“Reaching One Billion,” Banker Africa, 30.6.2014, available at
“Africa Islamic Economic Forum,”
I have not yet been able to establish when and where the first and second African Islamic Finance Summit took place. All summits from the third until the seventh convened in Dar es-Salaam in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2021. (The COVID-19 pandemic cancelled the summit in 2020). The eight as well as tenth summit convened in Banjul, The Gambia, in March 2022 respectively May 2023, the eleventh in Hargeisa, Somaliland, in December 2023; see
The inaugural Africa Islamic Finance Forum was held in Abidjan in October 2015, see
For the list of confirmed speakers attending the 2015 AIFF, see “The Inaugural Africa Islamic Finance Forum by the Cote d-Ivoirian Government and the Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector,” 18.9.2015,
“Promising future for Islamic banking in Ghana,” 15.10.2015,
“Time for Ghana to have Islamic banks—Entrepreneur,” 1.4.2015,
“Entry to universal banking still open,” 31.8.2015,
Haji Abdel-Manan Abdel-Rahman, General Secretary COMOG, “Press Conference by the Coalition of Muslim Organisations, Ghana, on Political Parties’ Position on Permanent Issues Affecting the Muslim Community in Ghana, 9th November, 2016,”
“Ghana to welcome its first Islamic finance institution,” 1.10.2015,
Interview with Abdul-Muumin Saeed, CEO of Global Institute of Islamic Banking, Insurance and Consultancy, Kumasi, 14.12.2019.
Bank of Ghana, Transcript of the Press Conference of the Monetary Policy Committee held on January 23, 2017,
“Islamic banking gathers dust—Regulatory framework still absent,” 5.6.2018,
Mohammed Yaw Broni, Challenges in Establishing an Islamic Banking and Finance System: Evidence from Ghana, MPRA Paper No. 90451, posted 12 Dec 2018 at
Ussif and Yussif, “Establishing Islamic Banking and Financing (IBF) in Ghana.”
Abdul-Hamid Abdul-Wahab and Dzuljastri Bin Abdul Razak, “Islamic Banking Adoption in Ghana,” International Journal of Business, Economics and Law 19, no. 2 (2019): 14–21; Hafiz Ismail Saeed, Enhancing financial inclusion in Ghana through Islamic finance, MSc (Islamic Finance), College of Islamic Studies, Hamad bin Khalifa University, Qatar, 2019.
Amina Sammo, “Factors Affecting the Adopting of Islamic banking in Ghana,” Scholarly Journal of Arts & Humanities 4, no. 6 (2019): 43–49.
Objectives of TIIFE,
Shaibu Ali, Sherif Heiman Shaban, Musah Ismaila, Imoro Alhassan, and Yusif Ali, “Islamic Banking in Ghana: Prospects and Challenges,” International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research and Development 7, no. 8 (2020): 157–166.
Since its first Zoom Live Webinar on ‘The Impact of COVID-19 on Ghana’s economy and why Islamic finance is still the best way forward’ on 17 May 2020, IFRIG has presented eighteen webinars, the last one on 31 January 2022 (status: 16 February 2022).
Al-Huda CIBE also signed a memorandum of Understanding with the Ghana Islamic Research Association (IRAG) to promote Islamic banking and finance globally. However, apart from calling the Office of the National Chief Imam and all Muslims in Ghana to activate the public discussions, IRAG no further postings on Islamic finance are found on IRAG’s Facebook account (
“Islamic finance requires multi-stakeholder push—experts,” 13.11.2020,
“Use banking ‘windows’ to kick-start Islamic finance in Ghana—Researcher,” 18.2.2021,
“IFRIG launches annual Islamic finance conference, IFIC 2021,” 2.10.2021,
“Islamic Finance can be gamechanger in tackling Ghana’s rising public debt—Experts,” 13.11.2021,
“IFRIG holds confab on rising debt in Ghana,” 9.11.2021,
Bernard Benghan, “Provide Financial Support for Establishment of Islamic Bank—Alhassan Andani,” Ghanaian Times, 19.4.2022,
An Analysis of Ghana’s Regulatory Framework for Non-interest Banking & Finance. By Islamic Finance Research Institute, Ghana (IFRIG) research team. Issued: February 2023, uploaded 28.2.2023,
Joseph Mbawuni, “Influence of Demography on Bankers’ Intention to Adopt Islamic Banking and Switch Conventional Banking in Ghana,” Journal of Islamic Banking and Finance 7, no. 2 (2019): 17.
M. Kabir Hassan, Muneer M. Alshater, Rashedul Hasan, and Abul Bashar Bhuiyan, “Islamic Microfinance: A Bibliometric Review,” Global Finance Journal 49 (2021), online 12.6.2021,
Mohammed Aslam Haneef, Aliyu Dahiru Mohammad, Mustafa Omar, Ataul Huq Pramanik, and Fouad Amin, “Integration of Waqf and Islamic Microfinance for Poverty Reduction in OIC Member Countries: A Case Study of Nigeria,” in Equitable Islamic Finance, eds. Muhammad Khaleequzzaman, Nasim Shah Shirazi, Abdul Rashid, and Mohammed Obaidullah (Jeddah: Islamic Research and Training Institute, 2016), 1–24.
“MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Ghana Islamic Microfinance Plans to Commence Operations in September, Provide Shariah-Compliant Loans,”
“Ghana Islamic Microfinance,”
“Situation of Islamic Microfinance—One established in Ghana so far,” Farz Foundation, Establishment and Expansion of Islamic Microfinance Institutions (MFI s) in Africa (2012), 30–31, available at
“Islamic micro lenders set up global network,” 23.1.2011,
Mbawuni and Nimako, “Introduction of Islamic Banking and Finance in Ghana,” 62.
Muhammad Al Bashir Muhammad al Amine, Islamic Finance and Africa’s Economic Resurgence: Promoting Diverse and Localized Investment (New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2016), 107.
Mbawuni and Nimako, “Introduction of Islamic Banking and Finance in Ghana,” 62.
“Ghana Islamic Microfinance wins award,” 21.6.2014,
Interview with Abdul-Muumin Saeed, CEO of Global Institute of Islamic Banking, Insurance and Consultancy, Kumasi, 14.12.2019.
“Islamic banking gains root in Ghana,” 1.9.2015,
“Promising future for Islamic banking in Ghana,” 15.10.2015,
Interview with Abdul-Muumin Saeed, CEO of Global Institute of Islamic Banking, Insurance and Consultancy, Kumasi 14.12.2019.
The other subsidiaries being: Afro Arab Company (registered 2007, general merchant services, especially the importation and exportation of agriculture produce and metal products, second-hand clothing and cars, cars sales and rentals, rentals of earth moving machines); Afro Arab Properties and Construction (est. 2009), Afro Arab Travel and Tour (est. 2013); Elecafetelero Ghana Limited (investment in crops and animal farming, including camel hearding); and Yaasalam Opportunity Center (est. 2017) alongside Afro-Arab Mining, Afro-Arab Telecommunication Company, A&A Sports, Afro-Arab Mineral Water Company and Afro-Arab Foundation.
“I have made a lot of money—Afro-Arab boss,” 13.8.2020,
“Afro-Arab CEO declares support for Zongo Youth Month,” 11.4.2017,
“From The Streets Of Nima To 40 Under 40 Nominee,” 17.8.2017,
“Afro-Arab boss named most influential personality in Nima,” 3.5.2018,
“Farouk Khailann and nine others named top ten emerging leaders in West Africa,” 19.8.2019,
“Stoneboy, John Dumelo, D Black, David Asante named in 50 most influential Young CEO s list in Ghana,” 7.6.2019,
In 2022, he was voted Young CEO of the Year; “Beryl Agyekum-Ayaaba and Alhaji Salamu Adamu voted 2022 Young CEO s of the Year,” 20.7.2022,
“Ambassador Alhaji Salamu Amadu awarded the Zongo entrepreneur of the year 2021,”
“Afro-Arab Group chairman receives outstanding personality honour at GFI awards,” 24.6.2021,
See “Afro Arab Microfinance Co. LTD,” Afro Arab Group Company Profile, [2022,] available at
“Afro-Arab launches Masalachi account,” 29.5.2018,
“Afro-Arab Microfinance will continue to empower women and youth—Group Chairman,” 16.9.2021,
“Afro Arab Microfinance trains staff on Islamic Finance”, 29.3.2022,
“ “First Islamic Micro Finance Institute” Ghana,” 17.4.2019,
However, I suspect the project has been ended; no updates on it are found on Facebook or on the MAM-homepage,
“Islamic Mission Secretariat trains over 300 women on skills empowerment,”
“Funding,”
“ICODEHS’ social protection interventions transforming lives,”
“Qatari NGO funds social projects,” 17.8.2005,
Interview with Abdul-Muumin Saeed, CEO of Global Institute of Islamic Banking, Insurance and Consultancy, Kumasi, 14.12.2019.
Felix Dela Klutse, “Ghana: Islamic Finance Gaining Momentum,” Business Day Africa (Accra), 28.8.2017,
“Ghana’s first Islamic Investment Fund launched in Kumasi,” 17.10.2015,
Interview with Ishaq Kantier, Secretary of Islamic Investment Ltd, Kumasi, 15.8.2018.
Interview with Ishaq Kantier, Secretary of Islamic Investment Ltd, Kumasi, 15.8.2018.
“STOLEN TRICYCLE!! (ABOBOYAA),” 20.5.2017,
Interview with Ahmed Musa, coordinator of the ASWAJ Ashanti Region Zakat, Waqf and Sadaqa Fund, Kumasi, 5.4.2019.
Interview with Ishaq Kantier, Secretary of Islamic Investment Ltd, Kumasi, 12.10.2022.
Interview with Ishaq Kantier, Secretary of Islamic Investment Ltd, Kumasi, 12.12.2019. Interestingly, Sheikh Umar Ibrahim Imam had initiated a similar bottled water project in 2003 that lasted for a few years; see Weiss, Begging and Almsgiving in Ghana, 143.
Interview with Ishaq Kantier, Secretary of Islamic Investment Ltd, Kumasi, 12.12.2019.
MUDI has acquired a 2,195-acre piece of land in Atebutu, Bono East Region for cashew plantation, soya beans, rice and livestock rearing.
Poster and call for event: Introduction to Muslim Cooperative Concept, 8.7.2020; Poster: MUDI Ghana: Agric Investment, HajjUmra ad Muslim Cooperative Concept, 27.12.2020,
“How to invest in MUDI,”
Haji Abdel-Manan Abdel-Raman, “Halal Co-operative Society: an Alternative to Conventional Financial Systems,” 16.4.2021,
“MUDI Group launches Halal investment expo,” 3.7.2021,
John Hunwick, “Islamic Financial Institutions: Theoretical Structures and Aspects of Their Application in Sub-Saharan Africa,” in Credit, Currencies, and Culture: African Financial Institutions in Historical Perspective, eds. Endre Stiansen and Jane I. Guyer (Uppsala: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, 1999), 72–96.
Mustafa Omar Mohammed, and Umar Ahmad, “Relationship between Intention and Actual Support toward the Construction of Modern Waqf-based Hospital in Uganda,” in Financial Inclusion and Poverty Alleviation: Perspectives from Islamic Institutions and Instruments, eds. Muhamed Zulkhibri, and Abdul Ghafar Ismail (Cham: Palgrave MacMillan/Springer International Publishing, 2017), 285–305; Abdullah, “Waqf, Sustainable Development Goals (SDG s);” Sanyinna and Osman, “Analytical Overview of the Role Played By Waqf in Poverty Alleviation.”
Muhammad Tariq Khan, “Historical Role of Islamic Waqf in Poverty Reduction in Muslim Society,” The Pakistan Development Review 54, no. 4 (2015): 979–996; Muhamed Zulkibri, “The Nature of Waqf Land and Properties Development in Muslim Countries,” in Financial Inclusion and Poverty Alleviation: Perspectives from Islamic Institutions and Instruments, eds. Muhamed Zulkhibri, and Abdul Ghafar Ismail (Cham: Palgrave MacMillan/Springer International Publishing, 2017), 271–283; S. Atuman Chembea, “Negotiating Muslim-Christian Relations in Kenya through Waqfs, 1900–2010,” Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations 28, no. 4 (2017): 431–451.
Atan and Johari, “A Review on Literature of Waqf.”
See
Etsuaki Yashida, “Fin Tech-Enabled Cash Waqf: Effective Intermediary of Social Finance,” Revitalization of Waqf for Socio-Economic Development, Volume I, eds. Khalifa Mohamed Ali, M. Kabir Hassan, and Adb Elrahman Elzahi Saaid Ali (Cham: Palgrave MacMillan, 2019), 43–58.
Hassan Azganin, Salima Kassim, and Anwal Adam Saʿad, “Proposed Waqf Crowfunding Models for Small Farmers and the Required Parameters for their Application,” Islamic Economic Studies 29, no. 1 (2021): 2–17.
Buerhan Saiti, Adama Dembele, and Mehmet Bulut, “The Global Cash Waqf: A Tool Against Poverty in Muslim Societies,” Qualitative Research in Financial Markets 13, no. 3 (2021): 277–294.
Sheila Nu Nu Htay, Syed Ahmed Salaman, and Soe Myint @ Haji Ilyas, “Integrating Zakat, Waqf and Sadaqa: Myint Myat Phy Zin Clinic Model in Myanmar,” Tazkia Islamic Finance and Business Review 8, no. 2 (2013): 170–186.
“What is sadaqah jariyah?”
“Sadaqah Jariyah,”
“Sadaqah Jariyah,”
Salih al-Bukhari, Book 54, Hadith 54 (
Bulugh al-Maram, Book 7, Hadith 179 (
“On who establishes a waqf,” Sunan Iban Majah, Vol. 3, Book 15, Hadith 2396,
See, for example, “What is Sadaqah Jariyah (Ongoing Charity)?”
“Waqf Well Construction Aims to Prevent Water-Borne Diseases in Ghana,” 12.7.2021,
Waqf Management Series, Webinars 18.9.–19.12.2021,
Orientation Program for the Ummah Waqf Fund on ABC s of a waqf institution, 8.1.2022,
Interview with Sheikh Dr Amin Bonsu, GMM National Chairman, Kumasi, 10.12.2017.
Interview with Sheikh Dr Amin Bonsu, GMM National Chairman, Accra, 13.10.2022.
Hafsa Obeng, “Ghana Muslim Mission Greater Accra branch launches 15th annual conference,” 12.7.2023,
See further Weiss, Begging and Almsgiving in Ghana, 142–143.
“Muslim Endowment Fund launched at Takoradi,” 28.2.2010,
“Foundation to promote education among Ashanti youth,” 16.2.2010,
Mimeographed Call by the Ahlus-Sunna Wal-Jamaʿa National Imam, personal copy of HW, received 2.3.2017.
Abdul-Rahim Naa Abdul-Lahie, “A Chat with Hajj Umar Ibrahim, National Imam of Ahlul Sunna Wal Jama’s (ASWAJ),” 16.10.2017,
“Government determined to support Muslims,” 10.9.2010,
“Ahlussunna Wal Jamaʿa Waqf Fund—Hope for the Ummah,” 11.8.2013,
Ahmed Alhassan, “Where is the Ahlussunna Wal-jamaʿa endowment fund?” 15.6.2016,
Ahmed Alhassan, “Where is the Ahlussunna Wal-jamaʿa endowment fund?” 15.7.2016,
Interview with Sheikh Umar Ibrahim Imam, Accra, February and December 2017.
Peace Dawah Media video on Hostel Building Project, Support Islam Waqf TV, 24.10.2020, accessed 3.2.2022: “ASWAJ Ghana used waqf money to build hostel project and money will be going to take care of orphans in the country … Haji Umar ready to commission the building now!”
Ahl Sunnah Wal-Jamaʿah Ashanti Region, Interim Operational Report by Regional Finance Committee, no date [ca May 2013], 2–3. The report was available on the ASWAJ Ashanti Region homepage in 2017 when I downloaded it. The homepage has ceased to exist since then.
Ahl Sunnah Wal-Jamaʿah Ashanti Region, Interim Operational Report by Regional Finance Committee, no date [ca May 2013], 3–4, 15.
Ahl Sunnah Wal-Jamaʿah Ashanti Region, Interim Operational Report by Regional Finance Committee, no date [ca May 2013], 15–16.
Re-Organisation of ASWAJ Waqf Project, Report by the Waqf Committee, no date [ca. 2013?]. The report was available on the ASWAJ Ashanti Region homepage in 2017 when I downloaded it. The homepage has ceased to exist since then.
Interview with Sheikh Kamil Muhammad, Deputy Chief Imam of ASWAJ Ashanti Region, Kumasi, 10.12.2017.
Interview with Sheikh Dr Ismaʿil Saeed Adam, Regional Chief Imam of ASWAJ Ashanti Region, Kumasi, 27.2.2017.
Interview with Sheikh Dr Ismaʿil Saeed Adam, Regional Chief Imam of ASWAJ Ashanti Region, Kumasi, 5.4.2019; Interview with Ahmed Musa, coordinator of the ASWAJ Ashanti Region Zakat, Waqf and Sadaqa Fund, Kumasi 5.4.2019. For a general discussion on feasibility of merging various Islamic social development schemes, see Mohamed Yusri bin Yusuf, “Trust Fund: A Product Combining Waqf, Zakah and Sadaqah for Socio-Economic Agenda,” Journal of King Abdulaziz University: Islamic Economics, King Abdulaziz University, Islamic Economics Institute 27, no. 1 (2014): 101–121.
See further Chapter 5.3.3.
Interview with Ahmed Musa, coordinator of the ASWAJ Ashanti Region Zakat, Waqf and Sadaqa Fund, Kumasi 6.4.2019.
“Muslims urged to register on to Waqf fund,” 21.7.2021,