BY MUZAFALUH KABUULWA
Members of Parliament sitting on the Public Accounts Committee (pac) have objected to the Bank of Uganda’s plan to remove the requirement for the establishment of a Shari’ah Advisory Council in order to operationalize Islamic banking in Uganda.
According to the government, there are no Muslims in Uganda with the necessary expertise and knowledge to serve on the Advisory Council.
However, MPs have contested this notion, claiming that the country is brimming with qualified Muslim intellectuals.
Hon. Muwanga Kivumbi, a Member of Parliament for Butambala County, tasked the Bank of Uganda to furnish Parliament with evidence of consultations it made with Prince Nakibinge, the Uganda Muslim Supreme Council, and the Islamic University in Uganda to propose some names to the board.
“In all honesty, that is a very weak reason. The regulations you cite are set by you, they aren’t statutory. When we give you an act to implement, you have a duty to frame a regulation that implements the act as is, but not to fail it. I don’t think you have looked around carefully and ascertained that there are no Muslim scholars that qualify, have you advertised and therefore flouted it around?” Mr Kivumbi said.
Kivumbi also blamed the failure by Bank of Uganda to find qualified members to the Advisory Board on the lack of depth and strategic niche in Islam among the Central Bank’s leadership. He pointed out that the Central Bank’s Deputy Governor, Michal Ating-Ego, and the Executive Director of Banking Supervision, Tumubweine Twinemanzi, are both Christians.
Mr Mpindi Bumali, MP of persons with disability said that experience can be gained through working.
“In the event that we got people who don’t have these qualifications yet we want the advisory council, for all these years that this act has been here wouldn’t they find it important for them to train those people so that they gain the experience that they want?” Mr Mpindi.
The MPs’ complaints come at a time when Islamic banking is gaining popularity in Uganda.
The Islamic Financial Services Act, passed by the government in 2018, paved way for the formation of Islamic banks and other Islamic financial organizations in the country.
The absence of a Shari’ah Advisory Council, on the other hand, has been a major impediment to the growth of Islamic banking in Uganda. The purpose of the Advisory Council is to provide advice on Islamic principles that should be applied to Islamic financial goods and services.
The protests are likely to put pressure on the Bank of Uganda to reconsider its plan to repeal the Shari’ah Advisory Council requirement. If the idea is not withdrawn, the development of Islamic banking in Uganda may be hampered
