Awareness, understanding and willingness of Islamic banking system implementation in Tajikistan

Abstract

In the current financial system, the Islamic banking industry is increasingly playing vital roles. Due to the adaption of Islamic Banking facilities by customers, the growth of Islamic banking system has not reached only Muslim countries but also Non-Muslim countries has implemented it. However, the implementation of Islamic banking system still lacks in a few Muslim countries such as Tajikistan. Therefore, the current study has conducted probability study of Islamic banking system in Tajikistan. The study examines the level of awareness and understanding of citizens of Tajikistan on importance of Islamic banking system and the willingness of Tajiks to adopt Islamic banking system in Tajikistan. Moreover, the study analyses the relationship between awareness and willingness to adopt Islamic banking products and services as well as relationship between understanding and willingness to adopt Islamic banking products and services. To analyses the factors that affect customer behaviors for adaption of Islamic banking system, Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) has been adopted. For collecting data, the self-structured questionnaire was employed and collected data from total of 304 citizens of Dushanbe city. The data was analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS). The findings of the paper illustrate that the population of Tajikistan have lack awareness and understanding of the practical and legislation part of the Islamic banking system. However, they have high awareness and understanding of the Shari’ah and some basic Islamic knowledge regarding Islamic banking and finance. Furthermore, the respondents have high intention to adopt the Islamic banking system in Tajikistan. The researcher hopes that the policy makers and financial institutions will consider the current results and initiate the establishment of Islamic financial institutions in Tajikistan.