The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has inaugurated the Financial Regulation Advisory Council of Experts (FRACE) for the regulation and supervision of institutions offering non-interest financial services in the country.

Central Bank governor Malam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi said FRACE was based on compliance to the principles of Islamic commercial jurisprudence, according to a statement from the bank.

He said the establishment of the FRACE is to ensure that products and services offered by the non-interest financial institutions satisfy the requirements for compliance to the principles underpinning their mode of operation, so as to meet the expectations of their stakeholders.

Members of FRACE include: Sheikh Sheriff Ibrahim Saleh, as Chairman; Sheikh Adam Idoko; Dr. Ibrahim Jalo; Dr. Abdulrazaq Alaro; Dr. Bashir Aliyu Umar; Dr. Mohammad Akram Laldin the Executive Director of the International Shariah Research Academy of the Bank Negara Malaysia; and Dr. Ahmad Ali Abdallah, Secretary-General of the Shariah Supervisory Board of the Central Bank of Sudan.

The council is expected to work in a way to prevent arbitrage opportunities for these institutions to the disadvantage of conventional ones, where the non-interest institutions would unfairly draw away customers and depositors from the market in the name of compliance with Islamic commercial jurisprudence while in the real sense they are offering the same interest-based products with different names under the guise of compliance.