Abstract:
The Islamic finance industry has grown rapidly not only in Muslim countries such as Kuwait,
Malaysia, and Saudi Arabia, but also in non-Muslim countries such as the United Kingdom,
France, and Ghana. Shariah Advisory Board plays an important role in corporate governance
of Islamic Financial Institutions. The primary goal of this paper is to address proper
understanding of Shariah and Shariah Advisory Board in order to place them in their proper
corporate governance in minority Muslim countries like Uganda as a new market for Islamic
financial institutions. Furthermore, the research focus on the role of Shariah Advisory Boards
and the qualifications for Shariah scholars on the board. It also demonstrates the importance
of Shariah Advisory Board’s independence in implementing its decisions using the previous
studies. The research is an exploratory study, the data was gathered from secondary sources
such as statutes, articles, online materials and annual reports of Islamic financial institutions
that were accessible in different countries. The study's findings are expected to be extremely
beneficial to Islamic financial institutions in Uganda and other countries where there is no
proper literature on Shariah advisory board concept and corporate governance.
