Maldives,  13 Feb 2023 –The Capital Market Development Authority (CMDA) of Maldives has acknowledged Prof Dr Aishath Muneeza, Associate Dean, Students & Internationalisation at INCEIF’s School of Graduate and Professional Studies, as one of the personalities who has contributed to the success of the Maldivian capital market establishment and development.

Prof Aishath’s accomplishment was acknowledged at a special ceremony held to celebrate CMDA’s 17th anniversary in Maldives recently. Among the recognition awards presented at the ceremony was for Prof Aishath for her, “unabating efforts since the inception of Islamic capital market in Maldives in 2011 up until now to develop it,” CMDA said in a statement.

A Maldivian, Prof Aishath was first appointed in May 2011 as a member to represent the private sector on the Capital Market Shariah Advisory Committee of CMDA. Until December 2022, she served as the chairman of the Capital Market Shari’ah Advisory Committee. In early 2011, as CMDA adopted its vision to develop an Islamic capital market (ICM) parallel to the conventional capital market, Prof Aishath was appointed as the Islamic Finance Consultant & Head of Islamic Capital Market Development Section.

In her capacity as the Islamic Finance Consultant, Prof Aishath was instrumental in steering projects for the establishment of the Islamic equity market and the sukuk market in Maldives. She extensively assisted the processes of establishing the Capital Market Shariah Advisory Council with the mandate to advise the CMDA board of directors on ICM matters and the processes for screening and approving Shariah compliant securities that are listed or in the process of being listed on the Maldives Stock Exchange. She was among the professionals who pioneered ICM in Maldives.

In January 2012, Prof Aishath assumed the position of Head of Legal Affairs and Corporate Governance Department. The main function of the department was to monitor compliance of listed companies to the corporate governance code of CMDA and to encourage voluntary adoption of the code by private companies who were potential future issuers of securities. She played a vital role in implementing CMDA’s corporate governance goals. Additionally, in 2013, CMDA’s Board appointed her as the designated lawyer to represent the organisation in the courts.

All the corporate sukuks listed so far in Maldives are structured by Prof Aishath, and she has been appointed as the Shariah Advisor for those issuances, CMDA added in the statement.

Prof Aishath’s work towards ICM capacity building is also commendable. She was instrumental in establishing CDMA’s collaboration with foreign training institutes including with INCEIF. It was with her assistance that INCEIF’s Master of Islamic Finance Professional Programme was introduced in Maldives and a number of Maldivians undertook the programme and graduated. She also facilitated other programmes and provided reports, course materials and teaching guides to create awareness as well as to build capacity in Islamic finance in Maldives. She initiated the Islamic Capital Market Bulletin as a quarterly report released to the market to create awareness of ICM developments during the initial stages.

INCEIF University joins CDMA in congratulating and acknowledging Prof Aishath’s invaluable contribution towards the development of the ICM in Maldives specifically and the world in the general. She has not only contributed for the practical development of ICM in the country, but has also contributed immensely for the development of its Islamic finance industry.

“Today, Prof Aishath is also an inspiration to the young generation and is the only female professor of Islamic finance in the country,” said CMDA.

Prof Aishath, who joined INCEIF in 2017, is acknowledged as of one of the founders of the Islamic finance industry in Maldives. She was a driving force behind the setting up of a number of institutions offering Islamic finance in her country. As a policy maker, attorney and also an academician who has tirelessly fought for the sustainable development of Islamic finance in her country, she is a role model and a mentor for women who aspire to develop a career in Islamic finance.

INCEIF, which aims to be the knowledge and thought leader in Islamic finance, has always prided itself as a university that emphasises on close relationship between academia and industry. This latest acknowledgment of a faculty member is an invaluable achievement towards bridging the gap between academics and industry.

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