The Tunisian minister of Finance Slim Chaker announced, on 16th October, that his country was considering issuing a sukuk worth one billion dinars (approximately USD 500 million) in 2016.

The minister, who was speaking during a press conference on the presentation of the 2016 Finance bill, also specified that the external financing requirements of Tunisia should reach 3 billion dinars (USD 1.5 billion) next year. The State budget for 2016 was set at 28.92 billion dinars (+5.87% compared to the 27.314 billion mentioned in the complementary 2015 Finance bill).

Many African countries are getting more and more interested in sukuks. After South Africa and Senegal, who took their first steps on this market in 2014, Tunisia, Niger, Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire and Egypt are working towards issuing Islamic bonds for the first time.

Registering a high growth in the Middle East and South-East Asia, Islamic finance remains under-developed on the African continent, though home to some 400 million Muslims.