Azire Credit Union launches Islamic Finance services.

The event brought together the administrative authorities of the North West Region, AziCCul management, some Muslim leaders and a huge presence of Muslim faithful.

The governor of the North West, Adolphe Lele Lafrique, congratulated the management of AziCCul for creating such a wonderful financial product to meet the needs of its Muslim members and contribute to the economic growth of the Region and the nation at large.

Adolphe Lele said the move will go a long way to assisting in the pacification of the Region, which he said has been hard-hit by sociopolitical crisis.

“Offering a new investment opportunity to Moslems is a way of contributing for normalcy to come back to the North West Region," the governor said.

While appealing to concerned Muslims not to hesitate to open accounts in the new banking system, he exhorted them to be agents of peace and development.

The General Manager of AziCCul, Awah Walters, said they were motivated to create the Islamic banking services to ensure the financial inclusivity of Muslims who do not carry out financial transactions with banks which are not consistent with Islamic specifications.

"So, the Board and Management thought it necessary to articulate these services that are in line with Islamic law so that our Muslim following can be part of AziCCul," Awah explained.

He said services handled by the Islamic banking system have been customised as a department in AziCCul to be in charge of Islamic banking services.

He disclosed that after the launching in Bamenda, AziCCul, in the days ahead, will move to Bertoua, Douala, Yaounde and other Regions of the country to ensure that these services are offered in these branches. 

The move, he said, shall be together with a Moslem consultant and a compliant board guided by the regulation.

AziCCul, he said, has over 60,000 regular members and over 200,000 irregular ones with 15 branches planted all over the national territory.

Boosting inclusiveness, equity, payments, transparency

On her part, the President of the Board of Directors of AziCCul, Mirabel épouse Ngang Neh, said the putting in place of the Islamic banking services in is for inclusiveness, equity, payments and transparency purposes. This, she said, is because AziCCul has to stay in a permanent relationship with its Moslems members.

Mohamed Sanni, the pioneer AziCCul Islamic services manager, stated a plethora of advantages that customers shall stand to benefit from the department he is heading.

First, he said the services are Islamic compliant. He explained that this means AziCCul will offer only services that are tailored to follow Islamic principles and laws. 

These laws, he noted, discourage usury and encouraging interest-free loans based on trust and conscience. Because of the compliance, he said, Moslems will be happy and free to carryout out their financial transactions with AziCCul.

Secondly, he stated that in the past, many Moslems were not in conventional banking systems because of the fear of usury or excessive interests. 

For that reason, he explained, many of them decided to serve their money in the form of assets, others kept theirs at home while some decided to lend out to others. 

So, with the advent of the new Islamic banking services without interest schemes, he said, Moslems will be happy to be in the inclusive banking system.

Another advantage born by the system, he added, is that it shall accompany Moslems to develop their businesses. This, he explained, is because Moslims have been lagging behind in carrying out economic activities because they were hesitant to borrow money from banks for fear of interest which is against Islamic laws. 

With the services in place, he added, Moslems would be able to construct houses, create and build schools and build businesses that are Islamic-friendly. The services, he said, have come to boost investment by Moslems.

Mohamed Sanni stated that one of the huge advantages that the Islamic banking services has come along with is the facilitation it will give Moslems preparing for Hajj or pilgrimage to Mecca. Muslims with Hajj account, he revealed, will henceforth prepare to go for pilgrimage without any financial stress. 

“Pilgrimage to Mecca demands huge sums of money. So, with the Islamic services, a Moslem will have the advantage to save in a Hajj account gradually in preparation for his/her trip to the holy land.

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3559 of Tuesday September 09, 2025