Islamic Finance Industry Development Award Winner: Omar Shaikh and Chris Tait, Islamic Finance Council UK
Founded in 2005, the IFC is a UK based not-for-profit specialist advisory and development body established to promote and enhance the global Islamic and ethical finance industry. Within the UK, the Council pioneered the Ethical Finance Roundtable (EFRT) series, which brings together a broad section of stakeholders in the ethical finance industry sector over a systematic, structured and regular basis. The IFC initiated the first ever joint venture between Islamic finance and the Church, facilitating the House of Lords interfaith roundtable – the first time the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, addressed a forum on Islamic and ethical finance.
Ethical Finance Initiative Award Winner: Mohammed Raafi Hossain, Narwi.org
Narwi is a non-profit Islamic crowdfunding platform which allows donors to support micro-entrepreneurs of their choice by establishing an endowment, or ‘Narwi-Waqf,’ with as little as USD 25. Narwi uses a revolving donations model: users make an initial donation to establish a ‘Narwi-Waqf’, which then enables them to finance Shariah-compliant loans to beneficiaries. When the beneficiary repays the original loan, the donation moves on to support other beneficiaries selected by the donors. Narwi was created to address the problem of youth unemployment in the Arab world by providing young entrepreneurs easier access to financing.