FBNQuest Trustees Call For Adoption Of Islamic Estate Planning

FBNQuest Trustees has called on Nigerians to adopt Islamic estate planning as it ensures the preservation of legacies.

The managing director, FBNQuest Trustees, Mr. Adekunle Awojobi, at the firm’s 5th Islamic Estate Planning Clinic which it organised in partnership with The Metropolitan Law Firm, in Abuja recently.

At the forum, The Metropolitan Law Firm, in partnership with FBNQuest Trustees also launched an endowment fund under the Islamic Banking guidelines to cater to the education of indigent Nigerians for basic to tertiary institutions.

The fund, called MetWaqf, is an instrument of Islamic Estate Planning largely designed for charitable and philanthropic activities to solve social problems.

The official launch of MetWaqf and its partnership with The Metropolitan Law Firm as the account manager to the initiative, Awojobi said, makes FBNQuest Trustees elated about the partnership and support, adding that, ‘we are hoping that this charity initiative in its entirety will get the interest of everyone regardless of religion.’

Managing partner, at The Metropolitan Law Firm, Ummahani A. Amin, stated that, the MetWaqf was established in fulfilment of the firms’ Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and dedication to the betterment of education in Nigeria.

Ummahani, while emphasising the essence of MetWaqf, said, the initiative is an Islamic endowment fund dedicated to promoting and providing education, most especially, to underprivileged persons in Nigeria and looks forward to the impact this initiative will have in the society.

The Islamic Estate Planning Session brought together high net-worth individuals, top industry players, investors, seasoned professionals, and sector experts who together discussed how the affairs of one’s assets should be administered and expert guidelines that come to bear in ensuring plans are made in keeping with the prescriptions of the Qur’an.

Ummahani Amin, said N60 million seed funding has been committed to the fund and is targeted at the less privileged children, particularly orphans in the northeast by providing scholarships and complementing efforts aimed at dousing the burgeoning number of out-of-school children in the country.

She made this known at the 5th Annual Islamic Estate Planning and Clinic and the official launch of the Metropolitan Waqf fund on Sunday in Abuja organised in partnership with the FBNQuest Trustees, a subsidiary of FBN Holdings

Amin said the philanthropic activity will kick off in the Northeast because it is the region of the country that is most ravaged by insurgency and wanton killings which have left many destitute.

She added that the fund is focusing on education because it is a major social problem in the country that must be addressed for the country to attain desired development.

“We are targeting Northeast right now when it expands, it would be for everyone that meets the criteria.  We will start with scholarships, but in the long run, we intend to have schools, especially for that with the best quality education and teachers to nurture and train the children till tertiary level, and we intend to give scholarships to either study in or out of the country at the tertiary level,” she said.

While noting that Waqf is an aspect of Islamic social financing targeted at solving a social problem, she said the fund is open for donations from individuals, and institutions.  She equally noted that the Waqf is part of the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) of the Metropolitan Law.

In the same vein, the Senator-Elect of FCT under the Labour Party and the member of the Board for the Metropolitan Waqf Fund, Ireti Kingibe, emphasized that the target is to help out-of-school children in the country, especially from the north.

Kingibe also used the opportunity to assure that she will use her office when she assumes office to ameliorate the plight of the marginalized groups in the FCT, especially the youth, women, and children.

Also in her presentation, Mutiat Olatunji, Private Trust Specialist, while giving an overview of the Islamic Estate Planning and Wealth Transfer defined estate planning as a structure set up during a person’s lifetime to cater to o the needs of both immediate and extended family, charitable and philanthropic activities

She also explained Waqf is a veritable tool for inheritance planning, and can also be used to cater to generational wealth transfer, medical needs, and charitable activities among others.