Al-Shakara's money... Algerians invest $90 billion away from banks for fear of usury
Algerian banks are making efforts to convince Algerians who invest their money in informal channels of the huge amount of their money they have, which a local official estimated at "90 billion dollars".
The Algerian newspaper Al-Shorouk said that the "Supreme Islamic Council" launched a campaign to persuade businessmen and dealers to "pump their accumulated funds outside official channels, which amount to nearly $90 billion, into banks according to Islamic banking formulas, given that the suspicion of usury is behind the reluctance of a large number of Algerians from banks. .
The Chairman of the Council, Bu Abdullah Ghulam Allah, revealed that he recently organized meetings with economic dealers and businessmen to convince them of Shariah-compliant financial transactions in banks.
Gholamallah said that the Algerian economy "today is in the hands of private dealers and factory owners", but they are required to take out their savings from the "shakara".
This comes at a time when six public banks launched services and products "compliant with Islamic law," the latest of which was the Algerian Foreign Bank, two weeks ago, and the Local Development Bank, which on Monday began circulating nine Islamic banking products, according to the newspaper.
The Algerian News Agency quoted the General Director of the Bank, Youssef Lallmas, during the launching ceremony of the first Islamic account in an agency affiliated with it, that the Islamic exchange of the bank, which bears the name "Al-Badil", will also be launched at the level of eight other agencies during the month of January.
The bank's services include "real estate lease ending with ownership" for individuals, "car Murabaha" for individuals, "consumption Murabaha" for individuals, "investment Murabaha" for institutions, as well as "exploitation Murabaha" for institutions.
It also includes the "Islamic Current Account", "Islamic Checking Account", "Savings Account" and "Mudaraba Investment Account Deposits".
The spokesman revealed, during a press conference following the inauguration of the account, that the bank will play the role of intermediary to retrieve "sleeping money" on the black market through various Islamic exchange services.
He concluded by emphasizing that "this endeavor falls within the framework of efforts aimed at financial integration and the generalization of Islamic banking across the entire national territory," according to the news agency.
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