Standard Chartered has introduced its Shariah-compliant Saadiq service to Kenya.

Letters of credit (L/Cs) and bank guarantees are amongst the offerings that will be available under the service.

African first

This is the first time the Standard Chartered has made Islamic finance available in Africa.

It is doing so as a pilot scheme with a view to rolling Saadiq out further across the African continent.

Customers using Saadiq will be able to access Shariah-compliant import finance and bonds as well as L/Cs and bank guarantees.

Rolling out

Standard Chartered has been providing Islamic banking products and services based on Shariah principles under the Saadiq brand since 1993 in Malaysia and since 2003 in the UAE, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

The bank says that its banking network already covers 50 per cent of the Muslim world.

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