As a director, Dr Djibril Seck’s role is to boost relations with the academic, public and private institutional partners of GREFIA. He also has a PhD in Comparative Literature.
Could you provide a brief journey of how you arrived where you are today?
My career has been built around three basic concepts as an object of science and analysis: religion, ethics and cross-culturalism. And I have chosen three channels to convey these concepts: research across GREFIA communication through different involvements in the media and international non-governmental organizations and finally university education through particular lectures at the Islamic finance university degree at the Strasbourg Management School (France).
The journey has obvious links with my training since after a PhD in Comparative Literature, I turned to information science and communication with a particular interest in ethical issues in business. This interest led me to embark on a PhD on relationships between ethics of Islamic finance and socio-cultural contexts of its implementation at the University of Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris.
I didn’t want to limit myself to fundamental research. Thus I organized all my professional activities around Islamic finance that involve teaching at universities, consulting in different companies and various studies. It’s all these aspects that GREFIA helps to conduct and move forward.
What does your role involve?
My role consists of identifying areas of research, coordinating the work of various researchers within GREFIA, developing programs and training seminars to prepare colloquia that we organize or in which GREFIA participates during the year.
In addition, as part of my consulting activities, I define and accompany the communication policy of the Independent Company of Islamic Finance in Africa (CIFIA) and assume the responsibilities of leading its academy business unit.
What is your greatest achievement to date?
Our greatest achievement is a major survey conducted by a multi-disciplinary team of GREFIA on the state of Islamic finance in eight countries in sub-Saharan Africa. This study, entitled ’Issues of the introduction of Islamic finance in the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) zone: Status and prospects’, has enabled us to:
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Identify the different Islamic financial institutions existing in each member of the WAEMU;
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Understand the positions of the political authorities on the issue of Islamic finance.
Which of your products/services deliver the best results?
Our information and documentation service, especially our website which records the visitors. And many structures and professionals working in the area of Islamic finance have created their blogs in this website to share their news.
What are the strengths of your business?
The primary strength of GREFIA lies in the multidisciplinary nature of its research teams. Our teams are made up of economists, sociologists, lawyers, professionals of communications, professionals in banking and insurance with solid experience validated both in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
The second strength is its specialization on the articulation of Islamic finance and social sciences which is a major and distinctive feature since Islamic finance is often studied either in financial terms or in legal terms.
What are the factors contributing to the success of your company?
Among the factors contributing to the success of GREFIA is the quality of the latest and regularly updated information it offers not only to professionals but also to the general public. GREFIA has an information portal in sub-Saharan Africa, the first site of information and documentation dedicated to Islamic finance.
What are the obstacles faced in running your business today?
GREFIA is a research group, and as such requires a lot of funding that is fully supported through its consulting activities. Therefore, GREFIA is always looking for sponsors and people interested in issues related to the introduction of Islamic finance in Muslim and non-Muslim societies.
Where do you see the Islamic finance industry in the next five years?
The assets managed by Islamic financial institutions are estimated at over US$1.2 trillion with an annual growth rate of over 14%. This growth is 33% over the level of US$826 billion in 2010. Based on these figures, we can only be optimistic about the development of Islamic finance industry in the next five years globally.
Name one thing you would like to see change in the world of Islamic finance.
At this stage of its development, we must work towards a democratization of Islamic finance to reach out to a more general public beyond this elitist sphere.