TIRA urged to introduce Islamic insurance regulations

Zanzibar Insurance Corporation’s Marketing Director, Said Basleym said in Dar es Salaam last Friday that Islamic insurance or Takaful is a co-operative system of reimbursement or repayment in case of loss paid to insured people.

Basleym who was attending a 3rd African Islamic Finance Summit in Dar es Salaam pointed out that under Islamic law, individuals and companies affected by natural hazards are compensated by a fund to which they agree to donate small regular contributions managed on their behalf by a takaful operator.

He said the country has no Islamic insurance services because of absence of regulations.

“We are calling on the government to introduce Islamic insurance regulations so that the country should have Islamic insurance services,” he said.

He added: “Tanzania is very far behind our neighbouring countries such as Uganda and Kenya on proving Islamic banking and insurance, Uganda introduced Islamic insurance regulations some years ago.”

Commenting on the same subject, National Bank of Commerce (NBC) Business Development Manager Eddie Mhina said since there is no regulation to guide Islamic banking, they are also facing difficulties offering better services.
“We are still waiting for regulations from the authorities so as to enable us introduce better products,” Mhina noted.

However, Speaking at the 3rd African Islamic Finance Summit AlHuda Centre of Islamic Banking and Economics (CIBE) Chief Executive Officer, Muhammad Zubair Mughal said that Islamic financing has potential to play a key role in facilitating more trading opportunities between Africa, Middle East and rest of the world.

Mughal said there is an increasing trend of Islamic financing institutions in Africa as the continent moves towards the growing industry.

“There is a wrong conception that Islamic finance has its roots in North African countries such as Tunisia, Morocco, and Algeria but rather its potential exists in the whole of African continent,” he argued.

Analyzing Islamic Africa’s Islamic financial industry, Mughal said according to estimates the total volume is about US$ 78bn which is less than 5 percent share of global Islamic finance industry.