The maiden edition of the Certificate in Islamic Finance was launched successfully by the IOU President and Vice Chancellor Prof. Makie Taal. The program which is the first of its kind conducted was initiated by the then Head of Department of Islamic Economics Banking and Finance who doubled as the current Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academics) Prof. Aliyu Dahiru Muhammad. According to the IOU Vice Chancellor this initiative will go a long way in serving the human resource needs of Islamic financial industry globally. The program was run from 3rd to 5th September 2026.

In his speech, the Deputy Vice Chancellor, Prof. Aliyu Dahiru Muhammad stated that this program was derived by the vision and mission of IOU and the dream of its Founder-Chancellor Dr. Bilal Philips, in promoting Islamic finance globally. Dr, Bilal Philips also sent his goodwill message for the successful takeoff of the program.

The participants came from The Gambia, Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya, South Africa and Qatar among others. The participants met with seasoned scholars in the academia, regulatory experts and practitioners as the facilitators of the training. The participants also comprised of IOU Staff, partners and professionals in the industry.

In his closing remarks, the Head of Department thanked the IOU DVC for his initiative and determined to proceed with the training in specialized areas of Islamic economics, Takaful, capital markets and banking and finance. According to the DVC (Academics), the participants became ambassadors of IOU and he encouraged them to use the knowledge they learnt during the training. Interestingly, the participants expressed their satisfaction by describing the training as one of its kind they have ever attended.