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Erudite AfricaCenter of Excellence

← Erudite Africa Center of ExcellenceBank and MFIInterest Free Banking ProgramPractitioner · Professional Certificate

Interest Free Banking Financing: Practitioner

Structure, price, document and disburse every IFB financing mode and product correctly, from first interview to payout

Learn to process interest free financing from first interview to disbursement: Murabaha, Bai' Salam, Istisna', Ijarah, Diminishing Musharakah, Tawarruq and Tijarah, the bank's IFB products, the Financing Approval Form, pricing, rebate and damage, collateral, takaful and the disbursement file, following a coffee exporter and a garment factory in Dire Dawa.

Start the course

0 of 9 modules completed

What you will be able to do

  • Structure a Murabaha, Bai' Salam, Istisna', Ijarah, Diminishing Musharakah, Tawarruq or Tijarah so that every Sharia'h condition on the asset, price and sequence is met
  • Match customers to the bank's trade, export, guarantee, term and Qard al-Hassan products and their specific eligibility
  • Process a request from origination, interview, documents, credit information inquiry and business visit to a complete Financing Approval Form
  • Calculate sale prices, installment, rental and unit buy-out schedules, rebates and damage charges within the board-approved pricing
  • Take, value, register and insure collateral under maker and checker control, and check every disbursement condition before paying suppliers directly
  • Spot the steps that would make a transaction non-compliant, and correct them before the money leaves the bank
For
IFB relationship managers, financing analysts, collateral valuators, financing administrators and legal advisors at Ethiopian banks with interest free banking windows or branches, and staff moving into these roles. Best taken after Level 1, Foundation, or with equivalent knowledge of the principles, prohibitions and main IFB contracts.
Study time
About 9 hours online, in 9 modules (4 days in the classroom version)
Each module
Short lessons, animated visuals, Ethiopian examples, decisions to make, NBE rules and worked calculations, then a quiz
Assessment
A 20-question final exam; pass mark 70%
Certificate
Erudite Africa Center of Excellence Professional Certificate
Access
Module 1 free for registered users; the full course, exam and certificate for subscribers

The 9 modules

  1. Module 01Free previewMurabaha in depthStructure, document and price a Murabaha so that the bank truly buys, owns and holds the asset before it sells it at a disclosed, fixed price.5 lessons · 60 min · quiz
  2. Module 02Bai' Salam and Istisna'Use forward sale (Bai' Salam) for crops and goods delivered later, and Istisna' for assets made or built to order, each with an independent parallel contract.5 lessons · 60 min · quiz
  3. Module 03Ijarah and Diminishing MusharakahFinance the use of an asset through Ijarah, and joint ownership that passes to the customer through Diminishing Musharakah, with schedules that follow ownership.5 lessons · 65 min · quiz
  4. Module 04Tawarruq and TijarahProvide cash through a genuine commodity sale only within the Sharia'h Advisory Committee's limits, and finance a producer's finished goods through Tijarah.5 lessons · 45 min · quiz
  5. Module 05IFB financing productsMatch each customer to the right trade, export, guarantee, term or Qard al-Hassan product, with its specific eligibility, and offer only products the Sharia'h Advisory Committee has approved.6 lessons · 65 min · quiz
  6. Module 06Financing processingTake a request from origination and the first interview, through documents, credit information, a business visit and the risk appraisal, to a complete Financing Approval Form.5 lessons · 60 min · quiz
  7. Module 07Pricing, rebate and damagePrice IFB financing within the board-approved profit rates, fees and charges, handle early settlement rebates at the bank's discretion, and send late-payment damage charges to charity.5 lessons · 50 min · quiz
  8. Module 08CollateralTake acceptable security, value it under maker and checker control, keep it valid through revaluation, replacement and release, and find legal defects before they cost the bank.5 lessons · 55 min · quiz
  9. Module 09Contracts, takaful, disbursement and filesPrepare, sign and register contracts, arrange takaful cover, check every condition before paying out, pay suppliers directly, and keep a complete file.5 lessons · 55 min · quiz
  10. Officer simulationA week as IFB relationship manager at Bank A, Dire Dawa branchWork as ifb relationship manager: 12 real-life items, decisions with consequences and a hand-over note. Pass with 70% to qualify for the certificate.
  11. Final examFinal exam and certificate20 applied questions across all 9 modules. Pass with 70% to download your certificate.

Practical exercise

Process one IFB financing end to end

Take one financing for the running case from structure to disbursement, using the ifb-pricing-calculator.xlsx workbook. Choose either Harar Highland's ETB 25 million coffee purchase (Murabaha pre-shipment export financing) or Dechatu's ETB 60 million machinery (compare Ijarah, Murabaha and Diminishing Musharakah, then choose one). Work as the team would: relationship manager, analyst, valuator, legal advisor and financing administrator. Every step must follow the Sharia'h sequence, the board-approved pricing and the procedure, and your host bank's Sharia'h Advisory Committee rulings and IFB policy take precedence wherever they differ from the course.

  1. 1Structure: state the customer's real need, choose the mode and explain in five lines why it fits and why the alternatives do not
  2. 2Pricing: build the sale price and installment schedule, or the rental or Diminishing Musharakah schedule, in the workbook, and add the early settlement rebate illustration
  3. 3Document pack: list every document in the order it must be signed, with who signs it and the event that must happen before it, using the workbook's checklist sheet
  4. 4Collateral: prepare a collateral summary with maker and checker values, registration status, takaful cover and any legal defects with their fixes
  5. 5Financing Approval Form: draft the FAF with purpose, mode, amount, term and price, repayment capacity and a stress test, exposure and related-party check, collateral and recommendation
  6. 6Disbursement: set the conditions precedent and the payment route to suppliers or contractors, then run the disbursement checklist on your own file

What you hand in

  • The completed ifb-pricing-calculator.xlsx with the chosen structure's schedules and the document checklist
  • A collateral summary of one page
  • A Financing Approval Form draft of no more than three pages, including the disbursement conditions

Templates and tools

  • IFB Pricing Calculator (Excel)

    A workbook that calculates a Murabaha sale price and installment schedule, an Ijarah rental schedule, a Diminishing Musharakah unit buy-out and rent schedule, Bai' Salam and Istisna' payment plans, an early settlement rebate and damage charge illustration, and a financing document checklist, prefilled with the Harar Highland and Dechatu examples.

How to earn the Professional Certificate

  • Complete all nine modules and their quizzes
  • Pass the workplace simulation with 70% or more
  • Pass the 20-question final exam with 70% or more
  • Blended and classroom cohorts: submit the practical exercise and the Level 2 file exercise (check a Murabaha file, find five errors and correct the schedule), assessed by an Erudite facilitator against the deliverables above, with a pass mark of 70%
  • Classroom delivery: attend all four days of the program

Built on

  • Erudite Africa training outline: Interest Free Banking Financing, Three-Level Course, Level 2 Practitioner (October 2026)
  • A typical Ethiopian bank's IFB financing business procedure (May 2025), unnamed: definitions, governance, roles, modes, products, processing, pricing, collateral and disbursement
  • AAOIFI Sharia'h Standards, including No. 8 Murabaha, No. 9 Ijarah, No. 10 Salam and No. 11 Istisna'; the host bank's Sharia'h Advisory Committee rulings take precedence in that bank
  • NBE Directive No. SBB/72/2019, Licensing and Authorization of Interest Free Banking Business; Directive No. SBB/91/2024, Bank Corporate Governance; Directive No. NBE/INT/13/2026, Interest Rates (As Amended)
  • NBE Foreign Exchange Directive No. FXD/01/2024 as amended, including Directive No. FXD/05/2026

Examples and companies are fictional. Bank practices are shown as typical Ethiopian practice, not as any one bank's policy. Always apply your own institution's approved policy and the current NBE directives.