Ghana: MTN should not take a unilateral decision, pay our interest to Islamic charity – Irbard urges

A renowned Islamic scholar Irbard Ibrahim has urged the telecommunications giant MTN Ghana not to take a unilateral decision on the accrued interests of Muslim subscribers to its Mobile Money scheme.

Irbard told FernilNews Musa Inuwa, even though Islam forbids taking interest, the current condition of Muslims in Ghana allows them to channel the lump sum into building schools, clinics and orphanages for the Muslim community in Ghana.

Also read: MTN’s exemption of Muslims from interest commendable

He has therefore urged the telecommunications company to have a broad-based consultation with the Office of the National Chief Imam, the leaders of the Ahmadiyya Community of Ghana, Ahlu Sunnah, Shia and Tijaniyya as well as Muslim civil society organizations to create  an  Islamic endowment fund from the accrued mobile money interests of Muslim users of the service.

He cautioned that the failure of major Islamic countries like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar etc to have an alternative use for their accrued interests in Western banks had led to the use of that money for non-Islamic transactions and an investment into the Western military industrial complex that has fueled conflicts in the Middle East and the larger Muslim world in some cases.

Irbard  out”o commended the telecommunications company for its move to exempt Muslims from its MTN Mobile Money interest scheme.

MTN Ghana has explained the reason why it sent bulk sms to its Mobile Money customers over interest payments. According to a release on Saturday, April 15, MTN said it had received complaints from some of its customers –particularly Muslims – of receiving interests against their religious beliefs.

MTN

A copy of the sms sent out to clients of Mobile Money MTN explained that the payment of interests is in line with EMI guidelines issued by the Bank of Ghana two years ago. “MTN remains committed to the Bank of Ghana regulations and continues to take stringent measures to adhere to them.

“Since September 2016 when the Bank of Ghana finally gave approval for the payment of interest, MTN has paid over 45 million ghana cedis to its Mobile Money customers and currently in the process of paying the first quarter interest for 2017 in line with the Bank of Ghana calendar for interest payment.” The release said inasmuch as it remains compliant to regulations, “the company also respects the wishes and religious beliefs of its customers and will not continue to offend them by paying interests to them if they wish to opt out”

Source: Fernilnews.com