The Dean of School of Economics at the University of Cape Coast has admonished the Dubai Chamber International to scale up its dialogue to higher corridors of power where a regulatory framework can be established to allow for such banks.
Prof John Gatsi says even though the idea is to set up such a bank to give alternative financial services to Ghanaians, care must be taken not to use the population size of Muslims in the country as the basis to push for such good intentions.
Speaking to Joy Business at the Dubai Chamber International Islamic Banking Forum held in Accra, the economist said countries that actually successfully implemented financial Islamic banking had a proactive regulator.
“Most of these countries are not Islamic states but have Islamic banking window operating in those economies. The regulator was proactive, saw the benefit, the alternative that Islamic banking could provide to the banking space.
“They took the decision and they quickly build capacity and put in place the regulatory platform and that actually brought into being Islamic banking and services into those economies”.
According to him, “Banking is a highly regulated industry….You can not give licence to people to operate Islamic banking when very clear regulatory framework is not developed. That must be done and that’s the work of the Bank of Ghana.”
Prof. Gatsi said the meaning and approaches of Islamic Banks will provide support for entrepreneurial businesses in the country when they finally comes into the country.
The president of Dubai Chamber International in Ghana the next step for the Chamber is to engage the government and the Bank of Ghana to lead a dialogue in November to start process for Islamic banking to take off in the country.
He said Dubai-based companies are ready to invest in Ghana’s financial economy.
Originally published on https://www.myjoyonline.com
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