Maldives Islamic Bank together with Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD), the private sector arm of the Islamic Development Bank Group (IsDB), government of Maldives, via Ministry of Finance and Treasury and Amana Takaful Plc, signed key agreements, recently. Minister for Finance and Treasury Ibrahim Ameer welcomed the visit of ICD Chief Executive Officer Ayman Amin Sejiny. According to IAmeer, the government looks forward to strengthening the ties with ICD and collaborating on more projects in the future. Ayman commented, "Strengthening collaboration within our institutions is critical to achieving our mission. We look forward to expanding our relationship with this new opportunity to extend our products and services and carry out more operation in the future." In his prelude to the signing of the ceremony, Mohammed Ataur-Rahman Chowdhury, head of Banking Equities, ICD and member of the Board of Directors of Maldives Islamic Bank, said that the agreements that are being signed are the first steps towards launching of an Initial Public Offering of the bank, after obtaining all the required approvals in due course from the regulators and stakeholders. Chowdhury added, "We look forward to the day where the citizenry of the nation are direct shareholders of the bank, and this dream would become a reality soon." A total of two agreements were signed during the ceremony. The first one between ICD and government of Maldives, signed respectively by Sejiny and Ameer. The second agreement was signed between ICD and Amana Takaful represented by Sejiny and Hareez Sulaiman. An Additional MOU for Joint Strategic Collaboration between ICD and MIB establishing the basis for further assistance and technical cooperation between the two institutions. The MOU was signed by Sejiny and Abul Ehtesham Abdul Muhaimen, CEO and managing director of Maldives Islamic Bank. In his closing remarks, Muhaimen thanked Sejiny and the delegation from ICD for traveling all the way from Jeddah in person to bring to a complete this most important milestone, such that MIB can successfully embark on its' Initial Public Offering. — SG
