The Secretary-General of the Academy, H.E. Prof. Koutoub Moustapha Sano, held via videoconference on Tuesday morning 20 Jamada Al Akhira 1442, corresponding to 02 February 2021, a meeting with officials of the International Shariah Research Academy for Islamic Finance in Malaysia (ISRA) to discuss the strengthening of cooperation and communication between the two institutions, in particular concerning the possibility for the Academy Waqf Fund to benefit from the services of the ISRA platform based on blockchain technology, in collecting donations to the Waqf Fund.

His Excellency opened the meeting by expressing his sincere thanks and appreciation to the ISRA administration for agreeing to hold this meeting, and its full readiness to provide all forms of technical and IT support to the Academy so that it can benefit from the services of its platform.

His Excellency then presented a brief overview of the Academy’s vision, mission, objectives and new strategic plan, emphasizing the importance of diversifying the Academy’s financial resources to implement its multiple activities and various programs. In the meantime, His Excellency spoke to the meeting on the importance of the recently established Academy Waqf Fund, which was established to collect donations from states, organizations and individuals to support the Academy’s budget. Therefore, this Fund looks forward to taking advantage of the ISRA platform to collect the largest possible number of donations to enable the Academy to finance its activities and programs.

On his side, H.E. Prof. Akram Lal Al-Din, Executive Director of ISRA, thanked the Secretariat General of the Academy for its confidence in ISRA, and expressed his pride in this confidence, stressing – in this regard – that ISRA will do its utmost to provide the necessary technical support to the Waqf Fund of the Academy in order to strengthen the partnership and cooperation relations with the Academy at all levels.

The meeting participants discussed on ways and means required to benefit from the platform from a technical and IT perspective. The meeting was concluded with the assignment of technicians from both sides to prepare a draft cooperation agreement and a memorandum of understanding as soon as possible which include the terms of the agreement and costs of operational services of the platform.

H. Em. Dr. Said Bahrawa and H.Em. Dr. Al Moataz represented ISRA in the meeting. As for the Secretariat General of the Academy, it was represented by H. Em. Dr. Omar Zuhair Hafez, Special Advisor to the Secretary-General of the Academy, Dr. Ayman Mohamed Abdel Karim, Advisor to the Secretary-General for Media and Finance, Mr. Al-Moez Al-Riahi, Director of Finance, Investments and Projects, and Ms. Sarah Amjad Hussain, Public Relations Supervisor at the Academy.