Malaysian fashion model and social media influencer Ike Diana argued there is no real conflict between mixing modest clothing choices and attractiveness and she willingly mixes modern pieces with traditional wear.

“Modesty is about finding the right balance of guarding your skin and wearing clothes that cover, yet are comfortable and fashionable. It is all about proportion because you can pair straight-cut jeans with a looser top or a fitted top with a flowy skirt,” she said, explaining that in southeast Asia, modest fashion was about dressing comfortably, not showing too much and clothes that fit the climate.

She said successful brands paid attention to Malaysia’s tropical climate with consumers increasingly conscious of the fabrics they choose, targeting breathability and comfort.

“We can’t wear anything leather or wool or at least wear them for long periods because it doesn’t suit the weather,” she explained.

Noting current modesty trends as being minimal yet trendy, Ike said there has been increasing interest in streetwear or basic pieces with an elevated look. This season vibrant colours, such as hot pink, have made a comeback. With more media influencers playing their roles through social media, consumer inspiration was being drawn from a variety of sources.

For Malaysian mother of one Amirah Najla Saidin, 29, choosing her modest wear demands comfort first. She observed that Malaysians lean towards more experimental choices when picking modest wear.

“Some say modest wear is loose clothes and some interpret it as long as your skin is covered, even with sheer or tight clothes,” she noted.

There certainly is plenty of choice. In Malaysia, brands such as UMMA, Imaan and Petit Moi sell an array of fashionable modest wear.

Malaysia’s influencer and model Ike Diana says modesty was about finding the right balance (Ike Diana).

Bangladeshi style

In Bangladesh the rise of ecommerce and related social media sites, including influencer webpages, has generated more creativity and choice in modest fashion ranges. Previously total coverage through burqas was common for women, but especially since 2014/15 as ecommerce took hold, retailers have been selling more abayas, khimar (traditional skirts and tops) and jilbab (another skirt and tops combination).

With ecommerce and social media opening Bangladesh to international fashion influences, these styles have been promoted by consumers seeing how women dress in Turkey, Indonesia, Malaysia and other diverse Muslim countries, said Tasnuva Rahman, co-owner of Reflections of Haya, an online modest clothing retailer

These influences are driving change in Bangladesh’s modest clothing market.

“One reason is women can try different fashions and trends. The burqa fully covers one and has mostly loose fittings, but the abaya, khimar, jilbab or a simple shrug can be fitted and worn in style,” noted Rahman.

Bangladeshi Muslim women wearing khimar (Reflections of Haya).

She added that teens and young girls preferred bat-wing abaya or shrugs over long tops, while middle-aged women prefer khimar and jilbab. Khimars are now also produced on a large scale by Bangladesh’s strong clothing industry:

“One can easily get a khimar for $5 when custom-tailor-made items cost $45 to $50. So, women buy khimar from any market,” said Rahman.

Fabric choices have also diversified. One e-retailer noted where previously women for burqas, women preferred BMW fabric, a variant of georgette from China, for their burqas, they now choose lightweight cherry georgette, silk, polyester cotton and pure synthetic fabric.

Old women like free-shaped, batwing cut, light-weighted fabric to carry with any dress, especially during summer and for winter, when temperatures fall to 11-14°C, they wear a coat or shrug over long tops.

Rural women still prefer heavy-work long burqas, while urban women prefer abaya shrugs to wear over any dress, noted Rahman.

Colour blocking is one of Gulf influencer Nada Nader’s favourite styles that she often promotes on her social media (Nada Nader).

The Gulf gets colourful

In the wealthier Gulf region, modest fashion is becoming increasingly inclusive and diverse with streetwear, activewear and fast fashion now trending among Muslim women.

“Modest fashion is no longer about wearing long-flowing gowns and loose-fitting black abayas. We now see colourful outfits and abayas, as well as modest streetwear, innovative hijabs and turbans with patterns,” Sarah Bradshaw, a modest fashion designer and founder of United Arab Emirates-based (UAE) Sarah Bradshaw Couture, told Salaam Gateway.

She said as the region’s often-fierce summer heat kicks in, women are opting for eye-catching colours such as light green, orange, mustard, beige and light pink – and for fabrics like silk and linen that are appreciated for their softness, elegance and comfort.

Born in Paris and based in Dubai, the 31-year-old social media influencer who has more than 22,000 followers on Instagram, said while high-end brands are becoming aware of the market’s potential and launching modest-wear collections, so are fast-fashion brands.

Colours such as orange, mustard, and beige are trending this summer in the Gulf (Sarah Bradshaw).

Mainstream retailers eye up modest fashion

For instance, PrettyLittleThing, a UK-based fast-fashion retailer, has gained popularity since launching a Middle East-dedicated ecommerce platform in 2020. The brand, known for its affordable prices, offers a collection of modest outfits.

Bradshaw said many modest-fashion influencers are also promoting low-cost outfits from Shein, the Chinese online fast fashion retailer, and Modanisa, a Turkish modest fashion ecommerce platform.

“Although I think the modest-fashion industry is becoming more sustainable thanks to educated and conscious consumers,” she said.

One example is The Giving Movement, a Dubai-based sustainable athleisure label that offers modest activewear, streetwear and loungewear. With its emphasis on ethical manufacturing and recyclable fabrics and its promise to donate $4 to charities for every item sold, the brand has gained numerous fans since its 2020 launch and recently raised $15 million from investors.

Bradshaw has also observed modest fashion becoming more inclusive, embracing different age groups, styles and body shapes.

“We have to keep in mind that the success of the market lies in understanding everyone defines modest fashion in their own way,” she said.

However, one challenge for all modest fashion brands in the region is the summer heat and humidity that does not encourage people to dress up.

Tunisia’s Sabrine Sbei, an influencer and retailer, wearing a modest fashion design (Sabrine Sbei).

Keeping it cool

“During the UAE’s summer, some people find it difficult to stay stylish and fresh outside. They might think it’s a waste of money and time to wear nice clothes as they won’t be able to enjoy them outdoors. This can negatively impact the modest fashion market,” said Bradshaw.

Modest fashion also reflects the diversity of consumers in a society. Tunisia, with its strong secular and religious traditions, has a mosaic of tastes when it comes to fashion and style. This has fed into modest fashion that is often more stylish in North Africa than in some more conservative Muslim cultures.

Sabrine Sbei, an Instagrammer, stylist and model and owner of ecommerce line Spity Shop told Salaam Gateway modest fashion trends incorporate both loose and tight outfits. For more modest consumers, a tight dress will be worn with an upper robe, such as an abaya, but for more secular women, these dresses could be worn alone.

As for colours, trending hues for modest and regular clothing are the same.

“Fashion focuses on bright colours, such as pistachio, bright orange, bright pink and similar funky colours,” said Sbei.

Modest fashion influencers are promoting soft, cool fabrics like silk and linen this summer (Sarah Bradshaw).

Arabic calligraphy

Tunisian fashion manufacturers can make variants of the same style to suit consumers’ modesty.

“The same clothing style is made for both women with and without hijab; the only difference is the length of the outfit, and what it covers,” she added.

When it comes to fabric, she said trendy fabrics like crumpled crepe fabric that achieve the perfect shape for loose trousers are common. The increase in local digital textile printing and its ability to deliver elaborate designs was also having an impact.

“Arabic writing is trendy on modest clothing this year, along with flowery vests and robes that are elegant and beautiful,” said Sbei.

Ultimately, in Tunisia, as elsewhere in the Muslim world, modest fashion is about wearing long clothes, made to cover the whole body, except for the hands and face.

Sbei said: “I love modest religious outfits myself, but it depends on everyone’s tastes and beliefs. There are Muslim women who would prefer a turban; others who cover their chest with an extra layer of their hijab and others just throw the hijab extra layer on their shoulders. It remains a personal choice based on how they apply their religious beliefs.”

Tunisian influencer and retailer Sabrine Sbei wearing her own ‘Spity’ modest design (Sabrine Sbei).

The Nigerian khimar

If more evidence was needed to reflect modest dressing is becoming a matter of style, consider Nigeria where the khimar, the long hijab-style robe that can be worn from head-to-toe, is becoming a symbol of trending modesty fashion.

“For Muslims it’s a good sign of faith, but it’s becoming more fashionable and people are really interested in wearing it, making it and selling it,” Amuda Faridah, a Lagos-based retailer of modesty fashion wears, told Salaam Gateway.

Faridah, a Muslim with an online store on Instagram, said social media has been instrumental in making the khimar popular across Nigeria.

“It’s becoming more stylish because it’s coming out in different colours with modesty fashion influencers portraying different styles on social media.”

For less formal modesty wear, two-piece outfits are also popular.

Nigerian Muslim modest fashion has real flair (Amuda Faridah).

“It’s either a shirt and a palazzo (trousers) or a shirt and skirt, but it’s a two piece. Most times it can be same the fabric with the same or different colours … it can be plain or patterned,” Faridah noted.

She added that Nigerian Muslim women sometimes paired these two piece outfits with a kimono for a three-piece look. These combination outfits are popular with Nigerian designers who often sell them online as ready-to-wear packages.

However, Faridah said dresses and abayas bought in Nigeria were often imported from the UAE, Malaysia and Turkey. The one currently trending was embroidery abayas with theses dresses fitting into what modesty fashion means for Faridah and countless other Muslim Nigerian women.

“They cover 80% of your body. Your arms are covered, your sleeves are covered and the pants are long. That’s what I understand as modesty. For instance, abayas are fashionable. They carry embroidery, are colourful and make modesty look fashionable,” she said.

When it comes to how these clothes fit, Faridah said consumers should have a choice. However, modesty wear should not tight fitting.

Not all modesty consumers would agree, rather stressing the need for skin coverage – and it is this diversity of views that is feeding energy and choice into the global Muslim fashion world.

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With Saudi Arabia opening its doors to tourism, it is promoting some of the most spiritual mosques in the world, for Muslims, and the most historical.

The Prince Mohammed bin Salman Project for the Development of Historical Mosques was announced in 2018 and has been tasked with preserving and restoring 130 mosques situated throughout the kingdom. The first phase restored 30 mosques in 10 regions.

The oldest mosque dates to 1432 BCE. It was restored during the first phase at a cost of more than 50 million Saudi Riyal ($13.3 million). The second phase of the historic mosques development project includes 30 historical mosques distributed across the 13 regions of the kingdom.

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Addressing the 2.1 billion tonnes of global food loss and waste is a planetary problem but one that requires local solutions. In Africa, one of the key measures to reduce post-harvest food losses is the expansion of sustainable cold chains, suggests the UN Environment Programme (UNEP). Cold chains are climate-controlled infrastructures helping to preserve edible products by maintaining a consistent ambient temperature.

“With Africa’s economy, driven by population growth, urbanisation and food security is expected to grow tenfold to $29 trillion by 2050; this presents a challenge and an opportunity” in accelerating the uptake of sustainable cold chain solutions in the agricultural sector, said Ziad Al Bawaliz to Salaam Gateway. Cold chains are climate-controlled infrastructures that help preserve edible products by maintaining a consistent ambient temperature.

Al Bawaliz is Danfoss’s regional president for Turkey, the Middle East and Africa. With over 40,000 employees worldwide, the Danish multinational company engineers energy-efficient technologies and delivers cold chain solutions through commercial and industrial refrigeration.

Danfoss is a founding industry partner at the Africa Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Cooling and Cold-Chain (ACES), located at the University of Rwanda. Through its office on the ACES campus, Danfoss supports students and technicians in their training needs.

“Refrigeration has been around for more than 100 years, and it’s an evolving industry,” Al Bawaliz said. “We can leapfrog the challenges developed nations face with CFCs and HCFCs.”

Chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) and hydrochlorofluorocarbon (HCFC) refrigerants are ozone-depleting. The use of these chemicals has been banned and is currently being phased out, following the Montreal Protocol of 1987.

ACES is a UNEP-led initiative established in 2020 by the governments of Rwanda and the United Kingdom. Its mission is to develop and accelerate the uptake of sustainable cold chain solutions in Africa's agriculture and health sectors.

“Besides dealing with a large number of small farmers, a lack of policies, investments, awareness and technical capabilities are the main challenges,” said Al Bawaliz about the difficulties of expanding refrigeration networks to prevent post-harvest losses.

According to Al Bawaliz, most small farmers cannot afford a cold chain infrastructure. What makes matters worse is that according to the World Investment Report 2022, foreign direct investments (FDI) in various sectors relevant to achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially in food, agriculture, health and education, continued to fall in 2021. However, flows to Africa increased from $39 billion in 2020 to $83 billion in 2021.

“We need to have the right financial models to ensure the development of cold chain; the return on investment is viable,” he said, suggesting service-based models to avoid the upfront investment.

“The banks need to be part of the picture,” Al Bawaliz added.

Ziad Al Bawaliz (Regional President at Danfoss Turkey, Middle East & Africa), Andrea Voigt (Head of Public Affairs at Danfoss Climate Solutions), and students from Danfoss’ internship project Eyes and Ears in Africa: Yves Nezerwa, Parfait Niyonshuti and Natasha Mutangana (Courtesy: Danfoss).

The World Resource Institute also names insufficient energy access to power cold storage and poor road and railway networks as an issue to be tackled, in addition to Africa’s low adoption rates for innovations in managing post-harvest losses.

To shift these low adoption rates, the Nigerian entrepreneur and founder of the Smallholders Foundation, which informs on sustainable farming through a radio station, Nnaemeka Ikegwuonu, travelled across the country to speak to farmers to co-design such innovations and help scale up businesses.

The result is a ColdHub, a “plug and play” modular, solar-powered walk-in cold room for 24/7 off-grid storage and preservation of perishable foods.

“When you travel along Nigerian roads, it’s a typical picture of citrus and other high-quality fresh produce dumped on the roadside due to lack of storage,” Ikegwuonu said at an event organised by The Oxford Martin School, a research and policy unit based in the Social Sciences Division of the University of Oxford.

“I discovered that more than 45% of food is lost due to lack of cold storage at key points along the food supply chain,” Ikegwuonu added.

According to him, with just 10,000 metre cubed, Nigeria has one of the lowest cold storage capacities in Africa, mainly catering to the needs of the health sector and fish imports from Europe and Asia. Refrigeration, which he describes as critical infrastructure, doesn't exist in Nigeria's food aggregation centres.

“The power grids can’t deliver energy reliably, and the average farmers and wholesalers can’t afford most of the refrigeration equipment needed to provide large-scale cooling,” he said, confirming the challenges mentioned by the World Resources Institute and Danfoss’s Al Bawaliz.

Ikegwuonu founded ColdHubs in 2015, and besides designing and building 100% solar-powered cold rooms, the company also operates and maintains them.

Over 5,000 farmers, retailers and wholesalers are using Coldhub’s services, nearly doubling their income from about $60 per month to $100 to $120 by selling the food that usually was thrown away.

“The goal is to extend the shelf life of food from two days to more than 21 days by bringing refrigeration closer to farmers at farm gates, where they need it the most,” Ikegwuonu said about the 54 cold rooms the company is running at the moment.

For 2022, Ikegwuonu projects to grow to 100 such rooms.

“Moreover, we've saved more than 1 million kilogrammes of CO2 by using renewable energy exclusively in all our systems, with no need for diesel generators at all,” he said.

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In 2014, Al Rayan became the UK subsidiary of Masraf Al Rayan (MAR), a Qatar-based Islamic bank. Last year, MAR merged with Al Khaliji Commercial Bank, which created one of the largest Sharia-compliant banks in the region with over QAR182 billion ($50 billion) in total assets. As part of the merger, Al Rayan Bank said it would leverage the opportunities from the MAR merger and focus on commercial property and premier banking, according to the bank’s 2021 annual report.

However, branch closures and a pivot towards high-net worth customers has led to some stakeholders suggesting that Al Rayan is slowly withdrawing from the retail market. 

Ibrahim Khan, co-founder and CEO of IFG, a UK-based Islamic finance platform, believes that Al Rayan’s gradual exit from branch banking is part of a steady withdrawal of the bank from serving UK Sharia-sensitive retail customers and focusing more on commercial and corporate lending activity as well as serving more high-net worth clients from overseas. 

“For Muslims in the UK this is an unfortunate development as it reduces the sources for Islamic home finance - Al Rayan was the biggest player for many years,” he said. “There is still hope with multiple well-funded new entrants to the market in recent years such as Strideup, Wayhome and others, however it'll be a while before we get the number of Islamic mortgages issued every year back to the heyday of when Al Rayan was at its peak.”

The Al Rayan spokesperson reiterated the bank’s commitment to the retail banking market.

“Earlier this year, Al Rayan Bank announced that it would continue its transition to become a financial institution which is focused on premier banking and property, mainly residential investments, to deliver a viable, resilient, Sharia-compliant business,” said the Al Rayan spokesperson. “As part of our commitment, we continue to offer the very competitive loyalty rates for all of our retail, assets and liabilities customers.”

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The Al Dhaid Date Festival that took place in the UAE’s emirate of Sharjah in late July is the latest example of the support the government is giving to the food sector. The annual event brought together thousands of farmers, manufacturers, and distributors of agricultural equipment to facilitate deals and exchange of expertise.

“The government does not take fees from us whether for participation in public markets or in festivals,” Ibrahim Shakkah, a Sharjah-based date farmer who participated in the festival, told Salaam Gateway. “Some exhibitions charge us, but they are nominal fees, and this greatly supports us and allows us to showcase our products and compete in the market,” he said.

Shakkah supplies the local market but is working towards becoming a regional supplier. “This is my third time participating in the festival and it has helped me gain many customers; I now sell around 600 kilogrammes of dates per month,” he said.

Ibrahim Shakkah, a Sharjah-based date farmer (Heba Hashem).

More than 30,000 people visited the sixth edition of Al Dhaid Date Festival, which coincided with the UAE’s date harvesting season that peaks in August and September. The event included competitions for date farmers and awarded cash prizes totalling $272,000 to 145 winners. Some of the most sought after dates among the nearly 160 varieties grown in the country were on display and sold.

Abu Ahmed, a Sharjah-based date palm farmer who was participating for the first time, presented varieties such as the khalas, sukkari, khenaizi, fard, marzipan, sobo al-aroos, al-ambra, nagal, and gash rabie. “Everything was sold out because of its high quality. I sold more than five [metric] tonnes of dates last year and it was mostly through local marketing,” he said.

Commercialising the industry

As much as two-thirds of the UAE’s agricultural land is dedicated to cultivating date palms, and the fruit makes up around 60% of the country’s agricultural produce, according to the Ministry of Climate Change and Environment. In 2019, the UAE produced 341,246 metric tonnes of dates from an estimated 40 million date palm trees across the country, data from the Federal Competitiveness and Statistics Centre showed. However, most of the date farms in the UAE are small family-run entities that were started about four decades ago as part of a social welfare programme designed to settle the Bedouin. Because of this, many of the date groves in the country are hobby farms and many farmers still grow dates in their backyards.

The government has already taken huge steps to commercialise date cultivation and help farmers increase their productivity and profitability. While Sharjah organises the Al Dhaid Date Festival and the three-month-long dates festival in Souq Al Jubail market, Abu Dhabi has been organising the Liwa Dates Festival for 18 years. The event recently concluded its latest edition, where prizes worth almost $2.2 million were given out to hundreds of winning farmers.

Abu Dhabi also organises the annual Khalifa International Award for Date Palm and Agricultural Innovation as well as the International Date Palm Conference and Abu Dhabi Date Palm Exhibition. This month, yet another annual event – the Liwa Ajman Dates and Honey Festival – will take place on the western coast of the country.

Al Dhaid Date Festival coincided with the UAE’s date harvesting season (Heba Hashem).

Exports on the rise

However, the most transformational move for date farmers was the establishment of Al Foah in 2005 by the Abu Dhabi government. Now the world's largest dates processing company, it buys products from local independent farmers and markets them domestically and abroad. The company – recently merged into the government-backed food giant Agthia – processes 110,000 metric tonnes of dates every year and exports 90% of this amount.

Last month, Al Foah launched an online marketplace called eZad that will enable farmers to sell off excess produce at home and abroad, helping them deal with their unsold produce and ensuring they get paid quickly. More than 1,200 buyers have signed up on the electronic platform, while over 450 local farmers have registered their interest.

As a result of these efforts, the value of the UAE’s dates exports has multiplied almost fivefold over the last decade, reaching $235 million in 2020 from $48.1 million in 2010, according to the Observatory of Economic Complexity (OEC), which collates international trade data. The UAE now accounts for 12.3% of global dates exports, making the country the third-largest exporter of dates after Tunisia (15.5%) and Saudi Arabia (13.2%). India – the largest importer of dates in the world – was the top importer from the UAE, receiving 33.2% of the country’s dates in 2020, followed by Bangladesh (16.5%) and Morocco (13.7%), OEC data showed.

Agricultural constraints

While date farming in the UAE is a long-standing tradition that locals are proud of, the industry is gaining more importance given the role it plays in the pursuit of food security. As such, there is a growing focus on educating farmers on sustainable techniques that can improve the quality of their crops. At the same time, the UAE government continues to support local farmers, providing subsidies such as agricultural materials at half the price. But several constraints remain.

“One of the biggest challenges faced by farmers in the UAE are the high costs that they incur due to water resources being available in different amounts across the country,” Saeed Dalmouk Alkatbi, a member of the organizing committee at Al Dhaid Date Festival, told Salaam Gateway. “This is besides the problem of agricultural pests and the high cost of pesticides. These issues lead to a discrepancy in the quality and prices of dates from one region to the other within the UAE,” he said.

The government announced this year that it would address this problem by investing AED2.5 billion (almost $681,000) to extend additional water networks to agricultural farms for easy distribution of treated water.

Abu Ahmed, a Sharjah-based date farmer (Heba Hashem).

“We inherited palm cultivation from our fathers and grandfathers, and we learned many things from them about how to take care of the date palm,” said Abu Ahmed. “At first, we were using primitive methods for drying and storing dates, then we started adopting modern methods. We now use organic fertilisers to fertilise the palm and we try to combat pests from an early stage."

Alkatbi noted that the Al Dhaid Date Festival introduced farmers to several growing techniques that can increase crop yields, most importantly multiplication of seeds, vegetative propagation, and the use of tissue culture technique. The event also showed date farmers how to monitor the date palm periodically to avoid pests such as the red palm weevil. The highly destructive insect is so prevalent that the UAE is investing $1 million to develop genetic methods to control it.

“It’s no secret that there are big challenges in this field, as there are diseases which can strike the palms and negatively affect their production. We manage these problems through pesticides or primary prevention of infection,” said Shakkah. “At the end of the day, the date palm tree is like a child; when you care for it and nurture it, it will give you good yields."

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Globally, the controlled environment agriculture market is projected to grow from around $74 billion in 2020 to more than $172 billion in 2025, according to US-based KD Market Insights.

In addition to hydroponic greenhouse farming, Pure Harvest is expanding into vertical farming, another form of CEA, through a collaboration with South Korea’s PlanTFarm, whose country is highly urbanised. “We learnt everything from the hardest point. We selected a country [the UAE] which has one of the harshest climates, not only high in temperature but also in humidity, which is a key factor you need to take into consideration as you build these facilities” said Sanad.

“If you’re going to create a solution, it should work in the worst possible scenario. That was the reason we started in the UAE, besides having a lot of support from the government. A big part of it was, if we could solve it here, we could solve it anywhere,” he concluded.

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Into this void steps Iraq Islamic Bank (IIB) and MSA Novo (MSA), with YAG Capital as senior advisor for this partnership, according to a press release. Now is time to lay the digital rails and platforms on which all future commerce, financial services, government administration, and healthcare delivery will reside.

Under these conditions, it is paramount to not just invest in startups but directly engage in building companies which merge the technical capabilities and global best practices aggregated by MSA with the local market knowledge and execution capabilities of IIB. This vehicle is historically the first endeavour of this nature established for Iraq and the largest pool of capital ever aggregated for investment into the technology ecosystem in the country. This initiative aims to not only create value for its investors and the shareholders of IIB but will also kickstart the innovation flywheel in the market. By funding, building, and mentoring the next generation of Iraqi business leaders, this endeavour seeks to lay the foundations for the country's long-term economic and social success.

The fund is already among the active investors in Iraq, having co-led the most extensive funding round in Iraqi tech startup history with the super app, Baly. Targeted investment sectors will be core logistics and payments infrastructure layers, consumer technology platforms and enterprise enablers.

Iraq’s Al Sanam Islamic Bank signs with ICSFS

Newly-established Al Sanam Islamic bank has selected ICS BANKS Islamic Banking software solution from ICS Financial Systems (ICSFS), the global software and services provider for banks and financial institutions, according to a press release. The signing ceremony took place at ICSFS’ centre of excellence, Amman, Jordan. Al Sanam Islamic Bank will provide comprehensive, Sharia-compliant financing products and services to the Iraqi market, with a robust focus on digital banking. The bank will be implementing ICS BANKS Islamic Core, Financing Facilities & Risk Groups, Remittances, Murabaha, Mudaraba, Musharaka, Ijara, Istisnaa, Profit Distribution, Al Qard Al Hassan, Time Deposit, Trade Finance, ICS BANKS Digital, and ERP solutions.

Nominations open for 2023 Islamic Development Bank prize for Impactful Achievement in Islamic economics

The Islamic Development Bank Institute (IsDBI) is inviting nominations for its prize for Impactful Achievement in Islamic Economics for the year 1444H (2023). Focusing on the Development Solutions Achievement category, this cycle of the Prize aims to recognize, reward, and encourage creative projects that successfully solve economic and financial challenges in the IsDB member countries, according to a press release.

Individuals and institutions can apply or nominate other individuals and institutions based on a project that has a positive and significant impact on people’s lives and has a substantial impact on economic development based on Islamic principles. The prize comes with a $100,000 award for the first-place winner, $70,000 for second place, and $30,000 for third place. The nominated projects should be initiated within the previous seven years and be replicable elsewhere.

The application or nomination is a two-step process that can be initiated by visiting the IsDB Prize Portal website. The first step is the registration of the nominator/applicant, which is open until 11 December 2022. The second step is for the nominator/applicant to upload the nomination form details and any relevant files before 20 December 2022.

The prize winner and runners-up will be honored at a ceremony during the 2023 IsDB Group Annual Meetings on a date to be announced in due course.

Bank Negara Malaysia to announced 6th Royal Award for Islamic Finance in October

Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) and the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) are pleased to announce that the Royal Award for Islamic Finance 2022 will be conferred at a ceremony on 4 October 2022 in Kuala Lumpur, according to a press release.

The Royal Award recognises visionary individuals whose outstanding achievements and innovative ideas contribute significantly to the growth of Islamic finance, the global economy, and  social progress of communities around the world. A global call for nominations was made in December 2021, following which 49 submissions were received for 37 nominees from 14 countries. These nominees include renowned Islamic finance practitioners, Shariah scholars, and academicians.

This year’s winner will be the sixth recipient of the prestigious Royal Award, which was  inaugurated in 2010 as a biennial award1 in support of Malaysia as the global standard of a comprehensive and sophisticated Islamic finance marketplace.

The Royal Award winner is selected by an independent seven-member international jury headed by former Deputy Prime Minister Tun Musa Hitam. The jury comprises eminent Shariah scholars, academicians, and finance practitioners. The assessment process is based on a set of defined selection criteria, encompassing contributions towards driving policy development, developing and growing the Islamic finance market, advocating for Islamic finance, pioneering innovation, expanding the frontiers of knowledge, and exercising exceptional leadership and influence.

In addition to the Royal Award, two new award categories have been introduced this year - the Emerging Leader Prize and Impact Challenge Prize which will be presented in a separate ceremony.

The Emerging Leader Prize recognises young international talent who have made outstanding contributions in advancing innovative ideas in the field of Islamic finance. For this award, the Secretariat has received a total of 18 submissions for 14 nominees from 8 countries. The prize winner is determined by an international panel of Selection Committee, comprising esteemed academicians and industry practitioners.

Meanwhile, the Impact Challenge Prize recognises digital and innovative solutions based on Islamic finance principles or Islamic finance enablers, that seek to improve the economic and social resilience of financially impacted communities globally. This prize is a collaboration with the World Bank Group Inclusive Growth and Sustainable Finance Hub in Malaysia and the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation. The prize winner(s) are evaluated based on four criteria - innovation, impact, commercial viability and scalability.

The organisers have received 50 applications from 14 countries for the Impact Challenge Prize. Those who met the criteria were shortlisted to join an Accelerator Programme. At the end of the Programme, they presented their innovative solutions to a panel of judges, comprising senior representatives from BNM and SC, Islamic Development Bank, World Bank Group and the venture capital industry. The Emerging Leader and Impact Challenge Prizes will be presented at the Global Islamic Finance Forum (GIFF) on 5 October 2022 in Kuala Lumpur.

Book released on Islamic Development Bank Institute's evolution and first president

The Islamic Development Bank Institute (IsDBI) has released a book which reviews the history and exceptional achievements of the IsDB from a nascent idea till the retirement of its first President, Dr. Ahmad Mohammad Ali, in 2016, according to a press release.

The new book is the English language translation of the original book first published in Arabic language in 2020. It deals with the various stages and key milestones the IsDB went through in the context of global and regional changes. It also highlights the first IsDB President’s initiatives, approaches, and ideas that he drew on in his interaction with the realities of countries and communities whose aspirations for growth, progress, and prosperity are depicted in the essence of the Bank’s mission.

The book includes success stories that illustrate valuable lessons as well as testimonies of personalities who dealt with the Bank, believed in its mission, knew Dr. Ahmad Ali well and highly appreciated him. The book was written at the behest of the former IsDB President, Dr. Bandar M.H. Hajjar, in compliance with a decision of the Board of Executive Directors.

Written in a simple yet very structured style, the book will be useful for diverse groups of readers, including researchers, development specialists, those interested in Islamic banking, and analysts of institutional and administrative practices and experiences. The authors are two retired senior IsDB staff members, El Mansour Ben Feten and Dr. Marwan Seifeddine, who worked previously as advisors to the first president and as department directors. They deployed the tireless effort and the diligence required in authoring a work of this nature by ensuring meticulousness and accuracy under the supervision of Dr. Ali and with the support and assistance of a team of IsDB Group officials.

UAE-based B2B marketplace Produze raises $2.6 million to digitalise agricultural value chain

UAE-based Produze, a platform for bringing agricultural producers and international retailers together, raised $2.6 million in seed financing led by Accel (first investors in Facebook, Spotify, Flipkart) with participation from All In Capital, and founder/CEOs of Ninjacart, Sammunati, Fashinza, Drip Capital, CityMall, Stellapps, DhanHQ and other investors, according to a press release.

Produze is a first of its kind platform that enables retailers to procure directly from source country agri producers delivered to their stores, enabling quality guarantee, competitive pricing, complete fulfillment and just-in-time delivery. The startup digitises procurement operations through a wide network of source producers, digitized exporting operations, importing operations and last mile logistics.

“Cross border supply chain for agri produce today is fragmented with several intermediaries and poorly managed processes, which creates inconsistency in quality, inefficient prices and wastage - leading to loss in value for the retailers and distributors.” said Ben Mathew, C0-founder & CEO, Produze. “At Produze, we’re enabling seamless commerce between the retailers and agri producers to return this wasted value back to them.”

Produze will serve multiple agri produce categories in multiple countries in Middle East, North America and Europe, serving a $143 billion market. The platform is now inviting applications for retailers and distributors on produze.com

“The Middle East has been a big strategic focus for Produze; UAE for instance is a dynamic and globalised market relying significantly on imports for food needs of an expanding population, where citizens and residents seek premium and uncompromised food quality at competitive prices. Produze is committed to bringing the benefits of technology and source producers access to enable retailers to get consistent quality, better prices and complete just-in-time fulfillment,” said Ben.

Produze was founded in 2022 by Ben Mathew, Gaurav Agrawal, Rakesh Sasidharan and Emil Soman. Ben and Gaurav were a part of the leadership team at Ninjacart, India’s largest agritech startup, enabling new distribution models, customer growth, profitability and investments. Rakesh and Ben had previously founded a B2C marketplace startup for home cooked food. Emil, who is the CTO, is a YCombinator alum and was the co-founder at Dockup.

Egyptian e-commerce platform Sharwa raises $2 million in pre-seed financing

Egyptian social commerce platform Sharwa has closed a pre-seed funding round for $2 million. The round was co-led by Nuwa Capital and Hambro Perks Oryx Fund and joined by several strategic angel investors, according to a press release. The pre-seed investment will be spent on the continued development of the technology platform and expanding the team.

Inflation has put a strain on households globally, where customers are looking for access to more affordable products. Sharwa aims to help customers do just that, starting with Egypt. Sharwa’s platform allows customers to get the best prices for their daily purchases on household essentials like groceries, appliances and homecare. Customers can club their baskets into a group order and place them through Sharwa using WhatsApp or directly on its app, unlocking wholesale prices from manufacturers for next-day delivery. In order to provide service in remote areas, Sharwa works with local community leaders, who have been Super Users of the service, to collect orders in their area.

As a result, Indonesia will host the 6th Annual Islamic Finance Conference as a G20 side event in Jakarta on 9 September. Two months later, Bank Indonesia (the country’s central bank), the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (another central bank), and the Saudi Arabia-based Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) are scheduled to hold a seminar on Islamic finance and digitisation on the Indonesian resort island of Bali, in another G20 side event.

A greater role for Islamic finance could be a catalyst for social and economic to achieve the UN sustainable development goals (SDGs), Indonesia's finance ministry told Salaam Gateway in a written statement. One of the important ways it can be done is through standardisation of best practices, it said, noting: “As the holder of the G20 presidency this year, Indonesia has an opportunity to promote greater growth in Islamic economics and finance, including the halal industry.”

“The attainment of SDGs is closely related to Sharia-based finance, including sustainable finance and digital financial inclusion. The Indonesian government has implemented several programmes that are in line with SDGs commitments and Sharia economic development, such as the issuance of green retail sukuk and ultra-micro financing for underserved communities such as women and micro-enterprises,” it added.

Such globally coordinated policies as shepherded by the G20 are important, given the turnover of the global Islamic finance industry is projected to reach $3.7 trillion by 2024, said Muhammad Al Jasser, IsDB president.

“We believe that Islamic social funding can stimulate economic activity and promote social welfare, financial inclusion, and shared prosperity by utilizing the traditional instruments such as zakat, sadaqah, waqf and microfinance through modern tools such as blockchain, fintech, and artificial intelligence,” he told the Global Islamic Investment Forum (GIIF), in Jakarta, in March – an event staged within Indonesia’s G20 presidential programme.

Al Jasser said awqaf - assets that are donated, bequeathed, or purchased for being held in perpetual trust for charitable causes - could be an alternative social finance framework, and reaffirmed the bank’s commitment to work with Indonesia's G20 team to bring the effort to fruition.

In 2020, the Islamic banking sector grew 4.3% year on year, reaching more than $2.7 trillion in total assets, according to Qardus, a UK-based Sharia-compliant business financing platform.

Islamic banking accounts for over 6% of the global banking market and comprises 68.2% of the total market of the global Islamic financial services industry, Qardus noted.

Continued growth in these banking services could help expand the halal sector, which according to the State of Global Islamic Economy Report 2022, involved Muslims spending $2 trillion in 2021 across the food, pharmaceutical, cosmetics, fashion, travel and media/recreation sectors.

This is especially the case in Indonesia, the world’s largest domestic halal economy market and home to nearly 230 million Muslims, with domestic spending across halal economy products and services of $184 billion in 2020, according to the Indonesia Halal Markets Report 2021/2022.

According to a 2020 census, only 40.3%, about 80.3 million people, in Indonesia have a bank account, up 50% from 2014. “Islamic finance plays an important role in meeting the financing needs to achieve the sustainable development goals,” said Tomi Soetjipto, a spokesman for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), in Jakarta.

“Therefore, in the past few years we have worked together with Islamic institutions to channel funds for SDG projects in Indonesia,” he told Salaam Gateway.

He noted that the Islamic finance sector in Indonesia has been growing between 10-12% annually across instruments such as sharia-compliant banking, asset management, sukuk and takaful.

Non-commercial instruments such as zakat, sadaqah and waqf “have also attracted the interest of the global community,” he added. The Indonesian government wants to ease payments of zakat and sadaqah through the banking system (both Sharia-compliant and conventional), plus mobile payment apps and online marketplaces. And its G20 presidency has also been an opportunity to push for the digitisation of small-and-medium enterprises (SMEs), which will aid the facilitation of these payments. Indonesia has set three priority issues for its G20 presidency on digitisation: connectivity and post-Covid recovery; digital skills and literacy; and cross-border data free flows with trust, said the country's communications and information technology minister Johnny G. Plate at a G20 digital economy working group meeting in March.

Indonesia is also advocating dialogue between countries on the governance of the global digital ecosystem. Dima Djani, CEO of Indonesia-based Alami, a Sharia-compliant peer-to-peer lending platform, said: “SMEs are the driver of the economy and have proven to be resilient in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic and it should be the government’s priority to increase access to funding for them.”

Digitisation is a major driver of economic transformation, with financial technology and e-commerce transactions valued at an estimated $24.8 billion in Indonesia last year, said Dima.

Alami has disbursed Indonesia Rupiah IDR2.6 trillion ($179.8 million) in sharia financing to SMEs across the country’s 32 provinces since it began operations in 2019.

“With increased financial inclusion it is important that we also increase the financial literacy of the people, so that they will manage their money more wisely,” she said. It is a sign of optimism that such a grassroots benefit can be yielded from global policy making at the G20.

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