WHERE ARE THE RESEARCH CARRIED OUT ON ISLAMIC BANKING IN TANZANIA?

Before and after the introduction of Islamic Banking products in the country, a number of researches undertaken in a diverse fields of Islamic Finance in the country by students of local universities as well as abroad. However, to find out where these researches are and what vast topics covered by them is tounting task for any information seeker.

THE DILEMMA.

Almost every year, i receive request to fill in questionnaires for Master and Ph.d students from Tanzania and elsewhere. I gave them one condition to promise to share the 'executive summary or abstract' with me after completion in order to let the general public aware of the existence of such research and significant findings. Few from abroad managed to share and unfortunately none from Tanzania has shared. Were the research aborted, incomplete or these researchers are yet to grasp the significance of sharing research findings?

SIGNIFICANCE OF SHARING RESEARCH FINDINGS.

In the 17th century, many scientists kept new findings secret so that others could not claim the results as their own. Prominent figures of the time, including Isaac Newton, often avoided announcing their discoveries for fear that someone else would claim priority. However, this fear has long been overcame by various measures instituted to protect discoverers and researchers.

In a country like Tanzania, research and development go hand in hand. According to Elias Banda, it is not possible to talk about development without talking about deliberate and structured efforts to establish information about a certain problem, and possible ways of solving it. For example, you can not eradicate poverty without thinking of the root causes of poverty and without doing an investigation on the best wealth creation methods that could absorb the poor and marginalised communities so they are given a fresh start in life. You can not strategize on increasing banking populations without doing investigation on the root cause of nonbanking and ppractical ways to address the problem.

It is long withheld view that 'Research findings have the potential to influence positive changes in the way government and other key institutions conduct business, especially in relation to the development and implementation of policies affecting the poor and the marginalized.'This view stands true today, as research revelations puts issues on top of the agenda of public and private stakeholders. For example, the research article by James Andalile in 2009 titled Viability Of Islamic Banking in Tanzania, provided a sound information on practitioner perceptions on viability Islamic Banking in the current conventional framework. It may be agrued that due to positive feedback shown in the article, triggered the entrant of new players such as NBC,Stanbic and PBZ to start offering Islamic Banking products besides KCB Bank. Furthermore, the research findings shed light on the legislations which must be reviewed to enable Islamic Banking compete fairly with conventional banks. Though this is yet to materialise, the central bank has already engaged consultants from the world bank to come up with Legal, Regulatory and Supervisory framework for Islamic Banking in the country.

On the other hand, if the knowledge gathered from the research is not shared, the research becomes useless to the development of Islamic banking industry locally and globally. Hence, there is need for strategic and innovative ways for ensuring that research findings in the field of Islamic Finance do not gather dust on shelves and in drawers like other researches carried out in the country, but the findings trickle down to the different interested stakeholders.

WAY FORWARD.

There is a number of ways to disseminate or sharing research findings in the current era of information technological advancement, such as engaging news media or journals editors to publish research findings but also using blogs such as this for the purpose. On the last way, i assure researchers in Tanzania and elsewhere that their research work in the field of Islamic Finance is mostly welcomed in this blog and enthusiastically awaited. 'Do research, summarise key finding and share knowledge or information' should be the primary goal of today's researchers.