NEXT Canada, GRIT Ed.06, Brain Gain vs. Brain Drain - Magazine - Page 13
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CREATING A
NEW CANADIAN
ECONOMY WITH
FINTECH
Mohamad Sawwaf
Co-founder & CEO, Manzil;
Next Founders, 2020
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GRIT
Manzil exists due to a convergence of my
academic, professional, and personal lives.
As a Muslim born in Canada, I
grew up with the understanding that
interest, more commonly known as
riba in Islam, and usury in the other
Abrahamic faiths of Christianity and
Judaism was impermissible. I would
not have a deep understanding of
this until I started working as investment advisor trying to attract a book
of business through my community
which was quite challenging. Not
only was earning an income off of
interest impermissible, there were a
number of additional principles that
needed to be adhered to and no institution offered these products. As
a result, this whole community was
excluding itself from participating in
financial services.
In 2014 I pursued my MBA and I
linked up with a professor who was
teaching the only course on Islamic
Finance at the graduate level. After
expressing my interest, he took me
on as his Teaching Assistant. Not
only did I fully understand the foundations and principles of Islamic Finance but understood how to localize these structures (in theory). This
MBA led me into a second Master’s
degree in Corporate Governance
which then led me into a Doctorate
in Islamic Finance which I plan to
defend in the next 12 months.
Manzil came about because I
was constantly receiving complaints
from my community that no one
was listening to their need of creating Halal-certified financial solutions so I stepped up and took on
the responsibility to solve this problem once and for all. After all, every
other Commonwealth Nation has
Islamic Finance except Canada. As
a social impact financial institution
(yes, finance can be fair and ethical)
we seek to support individuals who
want to balance their material needs
with their religious obligations.
ISLAMIC FINANCE 101
I’ve run dozens of workshops for
students and professionals across
the country teaching what I like to
call “Islamic Finance 101”. We’ve
taken on many undergraduate and
graduate-level students across
many business schools to conduct
capstone and other research projects related to Manzil and Islamic
finance. We have also participated in many doctoral-level research
and case studies to create great-
er awareness of Islamic finance in
action in Canada.
Central to Islamic Finance is
the fact that money itself has no
intrinsic value; it is simply a medium of exchange. Each unit is 100%
equal in value to another unit of the
same denomination and you are
not allowed to make a profit by exchanging cash with another person.
A Muslim is not allowed to benefit
from lending money or receiving
money from someone.
Islamic finance is designed for
Muslims but will appeal to anyone
who agrees with the underlying
principles of equitable distribution
for everyone, the ideals of fair trading, spending of wealth judiciously,
and the well-being of the community as a whole. In the wake of the
most recent banking crisis, individuals may also be drawn by Islamic
banking’s approach to investment:
you can only invest in real assets,
not financial instruments that are
based on speculation.
CREATING A NEW ECONOMY
As the only Islamic fintech in
Canada, Manzil could not have
been established without the assistance of legal, audit, and consulting
firms. All of which, had zero experience structuring Shariah-compliant
financing and investment products
that comply with Canada’s current
tax, legal, and regulatory frameworks. This was highly specialized
work that required years of research
and development and consultations
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