Nigeria Economic Meltdown: Islamic Banking As A Sustainable Trend

By  Wasiu Aminat Abidemi & Dr. Ibrahim Foudalmoula

ABSTRACT

Nigerian economy is facing the most severe financial crisis since the Great Depression of the last century of global economic meltdown and if this situation continues to deteriorate, Nigeria would be in great jeopardy. This paper seeks to assess the Economic meltdown in Nigeria Economy and investigates whether Islamic banking has the ability to withstand the challenges of the economic meltdown in the face of the current crisis facing the Country.

Islamic banking is one of the principles of Islamic economics system which cater for welfares’ of the citizen of a particular country. This paper seeks to highlight the extremely useful contributions and confirms a lot of the economic benefits that Islamic banking can offer to Nigerian economy if its challenges is been taken care of.

The paper is both descriptive and exploring possibilities and constraints of inherited situations by applying critical thinking and analysis through the published literature in Islamic finance and does not include empirical investigation. The information used was extracted from both primary and secondary sources especially newspapers, magazines, and books. Some data were also accessed from Internet on global economic meltdown. Journals were also accessed through electronic means in libraries and the web.

The paper however suggests that for these economic benefits to be actualized and in order to think through how to prevent future financial collapses and make capital markets work more effectively, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the government respectively needs to address the regulatory and operational measure so that Nigeria could lay the foundation to become a leader in Africa in terms of economic growth.