Islamic Securities and Bonds (Sukuk) For Infrastructural Development in Nigeria: A Comparative Study of Legal and Institutional Frameworks
Many emerging economies like Nigeria urgently require huge investment in infrastructure forincreased capital expenditure. Developing countries generally have difficulty in raisingfinancial infrastructure, yet short falls in infrastructure development reduce the quality of lifefor citizens and inhibit productive capacity of economies. Economic growth, quality of life andsupport services essential to the need of citizens depend on robust infrastructure, industrialgrowth, and infrastructure to produce goods at competitive prices. The fact that infrastructureprojects typically have a large scale upfront capital requirement, a long initial period withoutreturns, and extended payback period calls for innovative financial models. Thus, conventionalbonds and Sukuk, attempt to mobilise the funds from surplus spending units to shortagespending units. However, under Islamic Law, there are fundamental risk/return differencesbetween them- money (debt) is the underlying asset in conventional bonds while the underlyingasset in Sukuk is the exact asset. This paper concludes that Sukuk provides for greater returnand financial security than conventional bonds. Although, the CBN Act and BOFIA regulateboth the conventional and Islamic finance. Therefore, the paper recommends that much has tobe done for legislation in Sukuk within the Nigerian Islamic finance industry in order tocompete in the global industry.  

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