Nigerian firm to offer digital Islamic estate planning services with help from Malaysia

Nigeria’s UTL Trust Management Services will be offering Shariah compliant estate planning services in a completely virtual manner using a platform developed by Malaysia-based Pewarisan, a digital Islamic will writing and estate planning start-up.

This collaboration was facilitated by Malaysian Islamic consulting firm Masryef Management House in partnership with its Nigerian affiliate, Marble Capital. The product will be offered under UTL’s brand, WillPower.

“We are always open to opportunities in expanding our business, and when Masryef suggested us on this collaboration, we were quick to shake hands with our Nigerian counterpart, UTL, as we are excited to contribute to the Muslim community in Nigeria with our digital product solutions”, Nizam Mustapha, CEO and founder of Pewarisan, shared.

Nigeria is home to about 90 million Muslims, making it the fifth-largest Muslim population, according to Pew Research. The West African Republic is considered one of the most sophisticated Islamic finance markets in the region, with several sovereign Sukuk offerings and a growing Islamic finance community having recently welcomed its third fully-fledged Islamic bank. Its market potential has attracted foreign investors and expertise including from Malaysia, which had a hand in the setting-up of its second Shariah bank, Taj.

IFN understands that it took four months for the product to be developed and brought to the Nigerian market. “Having worked closely with Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation and incubators such as 1337 and WTF, we see a lot of potentials for our start-ups to expand outside Malaysia. We aim to help scale our high potential start-up partners with our network in Middle East and Africa,” Hilmi Hithir, Masryef’s principal, said.