Remarkably, Sudan only established its first Sharia-compliant bank in 1977 and the country’s Islamic economic system has since then been continuously developing. Sudan is the only country in this part of the world to have a wholly Islamic financial sector.
Within Sub-Saharan Africa, South Africa led the way, with one of the largest international Islamic banking conglomerates namely Al-Baraka Banking Group having been present there for the last 20 years alongside other institutions conducting Islamic finance in the country. More recently, other countries have joined the league namely Kenya, Tanzania, Botswana and Nigeria.