DAVAO CITY, 8 October — Bright prospects await Muslim traders in Mindanao to expand their businesses and spur development in their communities with the reopening of the Al-Amanah Bank in the country.
According to Jamil Hamza Olermo, chair of the Muslim Business Forum (MBF), the revival of Islamic banking provides a “breather” for Muslim businessmen who are hard up in getting credit funds from conventional banks.
But Olermo admitted that Al-Amanah Bank must undergo a structural reform before it fully operates to make lending more accessible and convenient for Muslim borrowers. He said the bank must have to be controlled only by Muslim bankers.
This, he explained, would give real meaning to Islamic banking which requires a banking institution to be managed only by Muslim bankers.
“Al-Amanah had the difficulty of being able to cater to Muslim borrowers because its structure does not conform to the real needs of Muslim traders. Most of those who sit in the bank’s board did not have the interest to rehabilitate the bank, he said.
This was after President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo pitched for prospective investors of Al-Amanah during her recent visit in Malaysia.
“We would like to believe that this would mark the start of a real Islamic banking,” Olermo said.
