Proceedings of the 12th Meeting of the COMCEC
Financial Cooperation Working Group
12
infrastructure investment needs per year in Nigeria is estimated at USD 35.1 billion. The size of
the Islamic financial sector in the country is small with assets of USD 0.648 billion only. The
Islamic infrastructure financing came from issuance of sukuk valued at USD 0.34 billion. The
investment needs for the infrastructure sector in Saudi Arabia is estimated at USD 24.5 billion
per year and the size of the Islamic financial sector is USD 438.9 billion. While the assets of
Islamic banks in the country are estimated at USD 371.2 billion, only USD 13.8 billion of this
was invested in the infrastructure sector. Sudan would need USD 3.18 billion infrastructure
investments annually and the size of the financial sector is valued at USD 12.6 billion. While
Islamic banks form the bulk of the financial sector with assets worth USD 11.7 billion, only USD
0.42 billion was invested in the infrastructure sector.
Prof. Ahmed then presented the highlights from the country case studies under the themes
identified above.
Infrastructure Related Strategy and Policies: Prof. Ahmed identified the long, medium and
short term strategies and plans that were adopted by different countries to identify projects
that would be implemented in the economy. Indonesia uses Five-year Medium Term National
Development Planning to ascertain infrastructure projects for development. The overall
development policies in Malaysia are driven by the Vision 2020 which was adopted in 1991.
The 10 year policy documents and Five Year Plans then identify the infrastructure projects
that are implemented. Nigeria adopted the National Integrated Infrastructure Masterplan
2014-2043 which guides the infrastructure sector in the country. The overall development
including the key infrastructure projects in Saudi Arabia are driven the Vision 2030. In the
United Kingdom, the National Infrastructure Commission is an independent body that
identifies infrastructure projects in an objective way in terms of benefits to the economy. Once
the projects are identified, the Infrastructure and Projects Authority oversees the proper
implementation of the infrastructure initiatives.
Prof. Ahmed then presented the national level PPP framework that facilitates investments by
the private sector in different countries. In Indonesia the PPP Directorate of Indonesia (under
the Ministry of National Development Planning) and Committee for the Acceleration of Priority
Infrastructure Delivery (KPPIP) deal with private sector related issues in infrastructure
development. While in Malaysia the PPP Unit under the Prime Minister’s Department is
responsible for PPP related issues, in Nigeria the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory
Commission performs this role. Saudi Arabia established the National Centre for Privatization
and PPP which will be responsible to implement infrastructure projects with private sector
involvement under the Vision 2030. Sudan has set up a PPP Unit in 2018 with support from
World Bank.
Prof. Ahmed also presented the status of the procurement in the sample countries and average
of OIC member countries. The procurement regime in Indonesia is better than the OIC average,
Nigeria has a similar status as the OIC average and the statuses of procurement regimes of the
remaining countries (Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and Sudan) are lower than the OIC average.
United Kingdom has the best overall procurement regime in the sample.
Legal and Regulatory framework: Prof. Ahmed provided the key features of the legal
framework under which Islamic finance operates in different countries. While in Indonesia
there is Islamic Banking Law 2008 and Sukuk Act 2008, the takaful industry operates under
the insurance law of the country. In Malaysia the Islamic Financial Service Act 2013 provides a
comprehensive legal framework for Islamic banks and takaful and the Capital Markets and
Services Act 2007 also covers issues related to sukuk. The Islamic financial sectors are
accommodated in conventional finance laws in Nigeria and Saudi Arabia does not have any