Theoretically, a monetary policy intervention of a central bank in form of exchange rate devaluation will make exports of such a country cheaper with a resultant increased competitiveness. However, should developing country such as Nigeria that is mostly import-dependent adopt the same approach? Will a greater focus on the structural and developmental changes be a better option? In a long-run, what is the lead-lag relationship between exchange rate and the Balance of Payment (BOP)? These are issues this project paper sets out to empirically investigate through a multivariate vector error correction framework ...

Sustainability has remained one of the most significant challenges facing microfinance industry in general and Islamic microfinance in particular. With the advent of Islamic microfinance and Islamic microinsurance the need for Shari'ah compliance is indispensable. Such need poses another additional challenge for Islamic microfinance practitioners. Many practitioners have argued that in practice Shari'ah compliance should be sacrificed for profitability so that Islamic microfinance industry could achieve sustainability and competitiveness in the global microfinance market. However, not a few researchers and Shari'ah scholars argued that the industry risk identity loss by trading Shari'ah compliance for any other benefit no matter how lofty - be it profit or otherwise. They are of the opinion that Shari'ah, being the backbone of Islamic financial system must be abided by in all Islamic finance instruments and models and compromising it cannot be an option. The controversy on whether sustainability and Shari'ah compliance could be regarded as mutually exclusive has been very intense and unabated especially among the regulators, industry players and academicians. Based on the foregoing, this paper sets out to investigate achieving both Shari'ah compliance and sustainability through zakat-based microfinance scheme. Inductive qualitative methods were adopted as instruments to conduct the research. Data were also gathered from both primary and secondary sources of Shari'ah. This paper finds that Shari'ah compliance and sustainability in microfinance operations could be achieved pari passu through the zakat-based microfinance scheme and as such both factors are not necessarily mutually exclusive.

This paper aims to investigate the utilisation of both zakah and waqf fund as external resources to ensure micro-takaful services are delivered to underserved communities in an effective and sustainable manner. It also addresses Shari'ah issues related to the zakah- and waqf-based model. The study is a qualitative-based research. It uses both focus group and content analysis approach to gather primary data and identify and interpret relevant secondary data and Shari'ah concepts in developing the zakah- and waqf-based micro-takaful model. It is discovered throughout the investigation of attributes of beneficiaries of zakah and waqf institutions as well as micro-takaful scheme that all share commonalities in terms of social securities and socio-economic support to low-income households in societies. The study also finds that the disintegration of zakah and waqf which form part of the Islamic ecosystem from the micro-takaful model makes it less effective and sustainable.