JAKARTA, KNKS – The Indonesia National Islamic Finance Committee (KNKS) welcomed the courtesy of Sokoto State of Nigeria delegations at KNKS office on Thursday morning 25 July 2019.

This visitation is the initiative of the Sokoto State of Nigeria in order to know about the practices and development of Islamic microfinance, especially Baitul Maal wat Tamwil (BMT) in Indonesia. They also want to know more about the committee in general. The delegations are led by the Governor of Sokoto State of Nigeria, His Excellency (H.E.) Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, accompanied by the Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Nigeria for Indonesia, H.E. Hakeem Toyin Balogun.

The delegations from Sokoto State are received by the Director of Inclusive Finance, Islamic Social Finance, and Islamic Microfinance of KNKS, Ahmad Juwaini, and several KNKS’s deputy directors and analysts.

In the meeting, KNKS delivered its profile and programmes of 2019, followed by the presentation about the practices, regulations, and development plans of BMT in Indonesia. To comprehend the deliverables, KNKS also invited the representatives of several association of BMT namely PBMT and INKOPSYAH, and the Ministry of Cooperatives and SMEs as the BMT’s authority.

The delegations of Nigeria decided to visit Indonesia and KNKS due to its similarity to their country, where Muslim population is the majority, and have a strong commitment in developing Islamic economic and finance in their economy. Muhammad Lawal Maidoki, one member of the delegations said that Indonesia is seen as a very important partner for their country and they purely come to KNKS to learn about the development of Islamic microfinance in Indonesia, especially BMT as the hallmark of Indonesian Islamic microfinance industry.

H.E. Aminu Waziri Tambuwal as the Governor of Sokoto State said that in his understanding, KNKS is an institution that interfaces between the regulating bodies of Islamic finance and bringing them together to better promote Islamic financing in Indonesia. They do not have similar body in Nigeria especially in Sokoto State and seeing the possibility to establish the similar institution in there.

When asked about the expectation of his visit to KNKS, the Governor also said that they expect the partnership, collaboration, and technical assistant with and from KNKS to establish the similar body and BMT industry in the Sokoto State of Nigeria.

“In the nearest time, we will send a team to be trained for the technical support with the manpower you have that understand the basics and dynamics of BMTs,” said Mr. Tambuwal.

In the same opportunity, to also promote the development of Indonesian halal sector, KNKS managed to also explain the current conditions of halal industry in Indonesia and how KNKS doing some efforts to boost it.

Reporter : Yodi Izharivan
Editor in Chief : Achmad Iqbal