In Nigeria, Christians Planning Non-Interest Banking To Parallel Islamic Finance

Last year, the Central Bank of Nigeria created controversy when it issued guidelines for Shariah-compliant financial institutions. (See prior posting.) Now, according to The Moment yesterday, Christian groups in Nigeria that have unsuccessfully attempted to get the Central Bank to withdraw its guidelines are taking a new approach. They are planning to apply for a license to operate a non-interest bearing bank that would operate according to Christian principles. This is seen as a test of the Central Bank's pledge that other groups seeking to create non-interest institutions would be given the same attention as Islamic banks, and that the Central Bank would issue guidelines for those institutions as well.