Equity Solutionz, a company focusing on tax, audit, accounting and information technology solutions, announced that it has signed an MoU with global Islamic finance consulting firm Fineopolis to collaborate in their respective areas of expertise. Fineopolis is a Shariah advisory group based in Dubai, the UAE with a focus on sustainable development goals.
“We are collaborating in the area(s) of training, research and consulting in Islamic finance, Islamic fintech and Islamic social financing,” the Equity Solutionz said.
The new partnership comes on the heels of a string of developments in the Shariah finance space in the West African nation in the past 12 months.
In June 2021, the country saw the soft opening of its first-ever fully-fledged Islamic microfinance institution, Yonna Islamic Microfinance, after it received its license from the Central Bank of The Gambia two months prior.
In the same month, President Adama Barrow of The Gambia held talks with the IsDB, which is currently funding six projects in The Gambia, on the continuing cooperation between the country and the multilateral bank.
More recently, in December 2021, Approved Services, which is in the business of money transfers, launched its Islamic microfinance arm with the support of the central bank, becoming the second of its kind in the nation.
The Gambia’s Muslim population makes up over 95% of the total, but there is no strict adherence to Shariah law in the country. Arab Gambian Islamic Bank, established in 1997, is the lone fully-fledged Shariah bank in the country, with seven branches currently in operation. Industry players do, however, believe that turning to Islamic finance will help the Gambia with its financial inclusion aspirations, poverty alleviation and economic development.