The India-based International Institute of Islamic Business and Finance (IIIBF) has entered into a long-term partnership with Trisakti University, Indonesia that includes mutual recognition of each other’s education programmes, development of new courses in emerging areas, such as, Islamic microfinance and Islamic non-profits and charities.
According to Dr Mohammed Obaidullah, a Senior Economist with the Jeddah-based Islamic Development Bank and the founder of IIIBF, “The partnership should provide a tremendous boost to research and human resource development for the growing number of Islamic microfinance and poverty alleviation projects across the globe. IIIBF would now offer MA and PhD degrees in Islamic Economics in India, to be awarded by Trisakti. The degree programmes would naturally focus on bringing into the classroom the best practices of Islamic microfinance from the innumerable experiments being undertaken across Indonesia and encourage their replication in India.”
IIIBF, sponsored by IBF Net (Islamic Business and Finance Network) has been a pioneer in offering professional certification programmes in the field of Islamic banking, insurance and investments since 1999. Similarly, Trisakti, the largest private university in Indonesia, has been a pioneer in Islamic economics and finance education in Indonesia.
“The mutual recognition of certification programmes should enhance the confidence of education seekers faced with the problem of choosing the right diploma or the right degree in Islamic finance to further their career opportunities”, according to Dr Ausaf Ahmad, a renowned scholar of Islamic economics and President, IIIBF.
“The partnership would also provide a fillip to the growth of the nascent Islamic finance sector in India by preparing professionals to take up managerial positions”, he says.
IIIBF and Trisakti have ambitious plans for the future that includes launching a joint website for Islamic microfinance and development (www.imad.in) and the first ever research journal in Islamic microfinance. According to Dr Sofyan Syafri Harahap, Director of the Trisakti Program in Islamic Economics, “Indonesia and India have the largest and the second largest Muslim population in the world and also account for a large proportion of the global poor and the excluded.”
“Ours is a marriage that makes enormous social as well as commercial sense”, he says.