Celebrating IDB at 40

I checked in at the King Fahad Palace, a seaside hotel with an impressive golf course which was the venue of a high level regional meeting of the Islamic Development Bank. The Bank is celebrating its 40th anniversary and the central focus of events is to consult member countries for an assessment of the Bank […]

I checked in at the King Fahad Palace, a seaside hotel with an impressive golf course which was the venue of a high level regional meeting of the Islamic Development Bank. The Bank is celebrating its 40th anniversary and the central focus of events is to consult member countries for an assessment of the Bank and collate their views on the way forward. The Dakar meeting which held from January 27-29 2014 is the third in the series. The same consultation was organised for the Asia region in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), Kazakhstan for Euro Asian countries and the fourth will be organised for the Arab League countries in Jeddah.
Participants for the Sub Saharan Africa regional meeting included ministers of finance from member countries who serve as Governors and on the IDB Board, Members of IDB Agencies, representatives of Organised Private Sector and civil society organisations. Among those from the IDB affiliated groups were members of the IDB Women Advisory Panel from Sub Saharan Africa. The Chairperson of the Panel Mrs. Aicha Ba from Guinea, Honourable Syda Bhumba from Uganda; and my humble self from Nigeria were invited to attend the meeting.
The first day, participants met in a workshop room for presentations from IDB staff and consultations. The main presentation was an introduction to the bank the areas it has invested in.
 The Islamic Development Bank is an international financial institution established 1973 and began operations in October 1975. The purpose of the Bank is to foster the economic development and social progress of member countries and Muslim communities individually as well as jointly in accordance with the principles of Shari’ah i.e., Islamic Law.
The functions of the Bank are to participate in equity capital and grant loans for productive projects and enterprises besides providing financial assistance to member countries in other forms for economic and social development. The Bank is also required to establish and operate special funds for specific purposes including a fund for assistance to Muslim communities in non-member countries, in addition to setting up trust funds.
The present membership of the Bank consists of 56 countries. The basic condition for membership is that the prospective member country should be a member of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), pay its contribution to the capital of the Bank and be willing to accept such terms and conditions as may be decided upon by the IDB Board of Governors.
After the presentations, the participants were divided into groups of English and French speaking members. The group consultation was facilitated by Mr Ibrahim Shoukry, Director, Financial Institutions Development of the IDB. In my group, there were three other participants from Nigeria. Mrs Hajara Adeola, Mr Masud Balogun from Halal Investments section of Lotus Capital and Mr Bashir Oshodi, the Group Head, Non Interest Banking Department of Sterling Bank. The three main issues addressed at the group consultation were: What are the IDBG interventions that had a clear impact in the development of the member countries? In which areas has IDBG missed some good opportunities to contribute to the development of the member countries and in which area could IDBG have played a better role? How efficient and effective has IDBG been in delivering its interventions?
In response to these questions, most of the participants commended the choice of projects being implemented in their countries since meticulous mapping of needs preceded the selection of the projects. However on missed opportunities, many participants mentioned the need for IDBG to invest in agriculture and agro allied businesses. The bankers from Nigeria also identified investment in the energy sector as critical to promoting industrialization and development in Nigeria. They argued that while food security is important, the deficiency in energy sector and over reliance on generators is making all productive activities extremely expensive and crippling industrial growth. Factories have closed down due to high cost of production and new ventures are being established in neighbouring countries and finished goods are then exported to Nigeria. Yet we are a country grappling with unemployment, a ticking time bomb which is waiting to explode. They cited the fact that hotels in Nigeria are so expensive because of the cost of maintaining generators to serve client needs.
The country is also losing many investment opportunities because of the unreliable power supply. It is difficult for people to rise out of poverty because even small scale productive ventures and artisans at local level are suffering for lack of power supply. The suggestions made by all the participants were recorded and presented by the facilitators of the five groups at a plenary session that marked the end of the consultations.
After the group consultations, the participants moved to the conference hall for the high level consultation with a larger group of policy makers. The meeting had in attendance the President of the IDBG Dr Ahmad Mohammed Ali and the Prime Minister of Senegal, Madame Aminata Toure and the Minister of Finance and Economy, Mr Ahmad Ba. In her speech, the Prime Minister welcomed participants and expressed satisfaction with the IDBG’s triple rating by international financial institutions. The President of the IDBG also expressed gratitude to members for finding the time to attend the consultations He said ‘today, the IDB needs your views on the progress it achieved so far on its way to assuming the lead. This can be measured by many elements, including the trust and open communication between the lDB on the one hand and its member states and all partners on the other; consistency of modernization and renovation with a view to mastering its work and achieving greater performance, while saving time and effort; and continued scaling down of work procedures. The achievements made could also be measured by the level of innovation, renovation and hard work undertaken to respond to the market’s demand for Islamic financing mechanisms; particularly following the crisis which struck the credibility of prevailing mechanisms, forcing the world to look towards our institution.’ He said the IDBG required answers, analyses, advice and guidance from members on their assessment of IDBG, its achievements, lapses and what it needs to achieve. Participants undertook an assessment of the Bank and the session rounded up with a dinner party. The meeting schedule was tight and only time I had to look around Dakar was on my way back to the airport.