BNM Governor proclaimed as INCEIF's Chancellor
16/02/2009

Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) Governor Tan Sri Dato' Sri Dr. Zeti Akhtar Aziz has been proclaimed as the first Chancellor for the International Centre for Education in Islamic Finance (INCEIF).

The proclamation is in accordance with the constitution of INCEIF where Tan Sri Zeti, who is the Chairman of INCEIF's Board of Directors, shall assume the position of Chancellor. Meanwhile the Chairman of INCEIF Governing Council, Dr. Rozali Mohamed Ali has been proclaimed as the Pro-Chancellor.

Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) Governor Tan Sri Dato' Sri Dr. Zeti Akhtar Aziz proclaimed as INCEIF's Chancellor.

The proclamations were made by INCEIF's President and Chief Executive Officer Mr. Agil Natt, on behalf of the Ministry of Higher Education at the inaugural convocation where 32 graduates of the Chartered Islamic Finance Professional (CIFP) programme received their degrees from the Chancellor.

The CIFP which is INCEIF's flagship programme, is recognised by the Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA) as equivalent to a Masters degree. Combining the academic rigour and hands-on practical industry experience, the programme is developed for professionals in the Islamic financial services industry.

The 32 graduates were the Bright Scholars, who enrolled in June 2007 as full-time students and they were fully sponsored by INCEIF. Ten of the 32 graduates were international students, of which three were from Indonesia and one each from Ghana, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Yemen, Nigeria and Thailand.

The inaugural convocation also witnessed a non-Muslim being awarded the President's Award. That affirmed INCEIF's conviction that it provides equal opportunities to study Islamic finance, regardless of any creed or faith. Currently, 11 per cent of the total of 977 registered students of INCEIF is non-Muslims.

The Malacca-born Adelene Teo Yee Ming was awarded based on her achievement as the student with the most number of distinctions in the CIFP examinations. An accounting graduate from Multimedia University of Malaysia, Ms. Teo was privileged to be interned at BNM's Department of Islamic Banking and Takaful.

Meanwhile, Ms Nighat Tanveer from Pakistan was awarded the Dean's Award for having achieved academic excellence by scoring the highest total marks in the whole CIFP programme. A member of the Pakistani Engineering Council and an MBA holder from the Karachi-based Institute of Business Administration, Ms Tanveer is currently attached to the State Bank of Pakistan as a Joint Director in the Exchange Policy Department.

The inaugural convocation was attended by several dignitaries, amongst others, the Sri Lankan Deputy High Commissioner and other university representatives including from University Tun Abdul Razak, International Islamic University Malaysia and Universitas Air Langga, Indonesia.