Mr. Sulayman J.K. Cham: is a Principal Financial Analyst at the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs (MoFEA). He is a financial economist by profession, and has over 14 years work experience in both public and private sector services expanding from the Gulf Peninsular to Africa. He was the first National Expert on Islamic Finance and Banking at the Central Bank of The Gambia (CBG). He worked for the World Bank Group as a Short-term Consultant for five months in Washington DC, USA. He also worked for Rawabi Dubai Group of Companies LLC as Finance Manager, in Dubai, UAE. He has extensive regulatory and banking operations background for about a decade.

Mr. Cham holds a Graduate Certificate in Capital Markets and Financial Instruments from the George Washington University (GWU), USA, an MBA in Financial Accounting Management from National Institute of Business Management (NIBM), Chennai, India and a BSc. in Finance and Banking from the United Arab Emirates University (UAEU), Al-Ain, Abu Dhabi, UAE. He is a trained and certified Islamic Finance and Capital Markets professional from Islamic Research and Training Institute (IRTI). He is also a State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) professional and APMG CP3P certified Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) professional with wide-range of monitoring and regulation of the financial sector. He is fluent in both English and Arabic languages.

Mr. Cham has a lot of research work in Islamic Finance as well as Conventional Finance. He authored books including: “Synopsis of Al-Sukuk Markets: Applications and Differences with Conventional Bonds”. He also authored and co-authored journals including: SHAPING THE FUTURE OF AFRICA: Markets and Opportunities for Private Investors, and DARP – Creating Distressed Assets Markets: Lessons learned since the Global Financial Crisis and Opportunities for Investors in Emerging Markets today.

Mr. Cham conducted several trainings and consultancies in Islamic Finance and Banking from 2008 to date, both locally and internationally, including COMCEC regional seminar on capacity building on Islamic Finance for the Central Banks of The Gambia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone, in 2015 as a lead facilitator. He was contracted by the West African Institute for Financial and Economic Management (WAIFEM) to deliver a course on Interest-Free Banking in 2016. He was one of the master trainers during the Management Development Institute’s (MDI) seminar on Executive Training in Mainstreaming Islamic Finance, in 2020. He presented in a panel discussion on Sukuk and National Development at the Global Conference on Islamic Finance organized by Nungu Business School, Nigeria 2021.