Infrastructure Financing through Islamic
Finance in the Islamic Countries
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4.5.5.5 Case Studies
Case Study: The Government Musharakah Certificates (GMCs) (Shahama)
Shahama is an Islamic Sukuk issued by the Central Bank of Sudan and the Ministry of Finance
and National Economy (MFNE) through the Sudan Financial Services Company (SFSC). SFSC is
considered an SPV in charge of issuing and Marketing Shahama Sukuk on behalf of the CBOS
and MFNE. The main objectives of Shahama are to manage and control liquidity at the
macroeconomic level through open market operations and fill the government budget deficit.
It satisfies all the conditions of legal contracts and is approved by the Higher Shari’ah
Supervisory Board (HSSB). Shahama has low risk because it is supported by real government
assets and GLCs such as Sudatel, the Sudanese Company for Petroleum Pipelines, Hilton Hotels,
Ariab Mining, Giad Motorcar, etc. The structure of the Shahama sukuk is shown in Chart 4.5.8.
Shahama is issued quarterly and structured as a musharakah investment instrument between
the holder as rab Al-Mal and the issuer as mudarib (BOK, 2016). It is valued at SDG 500 for
each certificate and the maturity of Shahama is one year. It yields a high profit rate compared
to other investment alternatives and there are no limits on the number of certificates that can
be bought. It is also considered by banks to be a liquid security against which they can grant
their holders credit financing lines because it can be easily liquidated in KSE (IIFM, 2010).
Chart 4.5. 8: Structure of the Government Musharakah Certificates (GMCs) Shahama
Source: Authors own.
The majority of investors of Shahama are local since there is an obvious absence of foreign
investors. Although there are more than three GICs listed in KSE, Shahama is the most active
one. In 2017, 41 million Shahama certificates were sold on the KSE with a total value of SDG
20,504 million and an average profit of 16.1% compared to 41.2 certificates with a total value
of SDG 20,555.2 million and an average profit of 17% in 2016 (CBOS, 2017).
Out of the SDG 14,314 million actual deficit in the government budget in 2017, the Shahama-
financed SDG 3,278 million represents a 23% contribution percentage compared to 19.3% in
2016 with a total amount of SDG 2,109 million out of the net actual budget deficit of SDG
10,918 million (CBOS, 2017).