Egypt to issue Sukuk law early 2016

The Egyptian Cabinet is to issue the Sukuk law at the beginning of 2016, Finance Minister Hani Qadri Demian announced Monday during the Euromoney Egypt 2015 conference.

The conference takes place in Cairo on September 7-8th with the theme of ‘ Financing the Future’.

According to the Egyptian Financial Supervisory Authority’s (EFSA) head Sherif Samy, the law is too focused on government institutions, whereas securities are mainly issued by companies and corporations in the form of shares and bonds.

The sukuk legislation was approved by Morsi’s government, but deactivated after his July ouster.

In April 2013, Al-Azhar Council of Senior Scholars stated that some articles of the sukuk law are “definitely incompatible with Islamic Shari’a law”.

In late November 2013, former deputy Prime Minister Ziad Bahaa El-Din said the financial instrument could be useful and that the law only needed a few amendments.