Kenya’s Islamic finance sector could reach more underserved customers if the country adopts clear rules and addresses gaps in products such as Takaful insurance, Stima DT Sacco CEO Gamaliel Hassan has said.
Hassan said Islamic finance should be made accessible to small businesses, pastoralists and low-income earners instead of remaining concentrated among larger corporate customers.
Speaking at the Islamic Finance Forum and Dialogue 2026 in Nairobi on Thursday, he urged regulators and players in the financial sector to jointly develop a legal and regulatory system that accommodates Islamic finance across banks, Saccos and other institutions.
He said this should be accompanied by greater financial education to help communities understand how Islamic financial products work and how they can benefit from them.
Hassan said pastoralists could use livestock to secure financing, noting that the practice is already possible under both conventional and Islamic finance.
“Using livestock as a collateral, we already do that both in terms of conventional banking and also in terms of the Islamic finance,” Hassan said.
However, he said the financing model faces a major hurdle because of the limited availability of suitable Takaful products to protect livestock used as security.
“The biggest challenge still goes to Takaful. It's about insurance, getting Islamic Takaful that is willing and ready and able for a good value to be able to give the kind of Takaful insurance that will be needed on those collaterals that are there.”
Hassan said financial institutions must also ensure their employees have enough knowledge to explain Islamic finance to customers.
He said Stima Sacco allows its staff to voluntarily pursue paid certification in Islamic finance, arguing that training should not be limited to employees directly involved in offering the products.
Auditors, credit officers, risk and compliance teams, business staff and legal departments should also understand the principles and operation of Islamic finance, he said.
Hassan said such knowledge can help employees promote the products more effectively, including among customers who are not Muslims.
“The biggest proponents that we see are both, of course, the Muslims within who are working at the Sacco, but also the non-Muslims who finally come to get that concept of ethical finance, then they actually become your biggest ambassadors,” he said.
He also urged the industry to step up financial literacy efforts within the Muslim community, saying many people still have limited knowledge of Saccos and cooperative banking.
“We come from a disadvantage and we own it,” he said, adding that Stima Sacco was ready to engage communities in places such as mosques and give people an opportunity to ask questions about its model.
Hassan further proposed the creation of a National Shariah Advisory Council to provide common guidance to Islamic finance institutions while allowing each institution to retain its own Shariah advisory committee.
He pointed to Malaysia, where a national council can issue guidance to help inform decisions by Shariah boards at individual institutions.
“It does not mean you do away with those individualized, the localized one. They are there, but there is an umbrella place whereby we can have a meeting of minds,” he said.
The push for a national body follows an earlier government proposal. The National Treasury’s 2018 Budget Policy Statement proposed an Islamic Finance Council that would establish a common governance framework and promote consistency in the development and issuance of Islamic financial products and services.
Despite that proposal, Kenya has not yet created a dedicated national Shariah advisory body within its formal financial-sector regulatory structure.