Leveraging Islamic Finance to Maximize Finance for Development

Over the past two decades, Islamic finance has emerged as an important source of finance for a wide variety of infrastructure projects, through both public sector and public-private partnership (PPP) schemes. Amidst the dearth of conventional infrastructure financing, Islamic finance widens the pool of resources to meet the massive infrastructure investment needs in developing countries, including (but not limited to) Muslim-majority countries. As the World Bank Group focuses increasingly on Maximizing Finance for Development — systematically leveraging all sources of finance, expertise, and solutions to support developing countries’ sustainable growth — Islamic financing is a critical tool. The asset-backed, ring-fenced nature of Islamic finance structures and their emphasis on shared risks make them a natural fit for infrastructure PPPs. A wide variety of these structures are available to provide flexibility to practitioners as they select appropriate financing vehicles and combine them with conventional financing in blended structures. The World Bank Group and the Islamic Development Bank Group have been working to create financial tools and products to foster this Islamic finance-conventional financing nexus. Their joint report, Mobilizing Islamic Finance for Infrastructure Public-Private Partnerships, is a key example of MDB efforts to increase awareness and capacity in how to bring in Islamic finance as an additional financing option for infrastructure development. This webinar will dive deeper into this topic, targeting policy makers in client countries looking for additional financing sources, practitioners of Islamic finance, private sector participants in infrastructure projects, and practitioners in the MDB community.

Learning Mode:
Archived Webinar
Topics: Islamic Finance
Regions:
Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Middle East and North Africa
Language:
English

Presenter Info

Aijaz Ahmad

Aijaz Ahmad, currently working as a Senior Specialist with the Infrastructure, PPPs and Guarantees Group at the World Bank, has over 25 years of experience in project finance, infrastructure development, private sector development, PPPs and privatization in around 20 countries. Prior to joining the Bank, Mr. Ahmad was the Chairman and CEO at Pangea Growth Ltd. providing project finance and PPP advisory services in the Middle East and South Asia markets. Before this he was the CEO of the Infrastructure Project Development Facility – a company owned by the Federal Finance Ministry of Pakistan to act as its central PPP unit. Mr. Ahmad was also the founding member and acting Head of the PPP Unit in the National Treasury of South Africa. Earlier he was a Program Advisor with the Privatization Commission of Pakistan, after launching the first private sector airline of Pakistan in the capacity of the airline’s Vice President, Corporate Affairs.

Fida Rana

Fida Rana is an infrastructure finance and PPP expert with more than 17 years of global experience. He has been a pioneer in structuring Islamic finance for many infrastructure & PPP projects in developing countries and frontier markets. He spent much of his career with the Islamic Development Bank Group where he worked on PPP transactions in various capacities spanning over arranging, underwriting, and syndicating, covering a variety of industries including power, oil and gas, mining, and social infrastructure. He has also advised extensively many policymakers of emerging markets on preparing bankable projects.

Mohammad Hedi Mejai

Mr. Mejai oversees investment and portfolio management. Prior to that, he headed the Enterprise Development Department in charge of non-sovereign financing operations (including PPP, Lines of Finance, Equity investments in non-financial sector, Enterprise Promotion). He was also a member of the Core Team charged with the establishment of the ICD, the private sector financing affiliate of IsDBG. During his banking career, Mohamed Hedi was seconded by ICD as the founding CEO of Injazat Technology Fund, the first venture capital technology fund in MENA region established in Dubai. He was also Executive Director in charge of Investments and Business Development at the International Investment Bank, a private bank specialized in private equity and real estate investments based in the Kingdom of Bahrain. He further served as Chief Executive Officer and Board Member of Oryx Capital, a regulated investment bank specialized in asset management, private equity and venture capital investments based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Ashraf Bouajina

Ashraf Bouajina is a Maximizing Finance for Development Consultant with the World Bank Group's Infrastructure, PPPs, and Guarantees Group in Washington D.C. She is a legal advisor by training and has studied private international law and business in France, the United Kingdom and China. She has over 7 years of experience working as a legal advisor and analyst in law firms and in the private sector advising governments, investors, lenders, companies and development agencies. Since joining the World Bank, her role has been to provide analytical and legal support relating to PPP framework and projects in the fields of legal analysis, policy assessments, capacity building, and upstream project preparation.

Presenter Resources

1. Document :

Leveraging Islamic Finance to Maximize Finance for Development