Challenges of Developing Islamic Financial Services in Seychelles - Dissertation Example

Download file to see previous pages Although the French were the first regular inhabitants of Seychelles, these islands were ceded to Britain after the Napoleonic wars by the effect of the Treaty of Paris in the year 1814 together with the island of Mauritius (Seychelles Review, 2012e). Britain was to administer the Seychelles island group from Mauritius until the year 1903, and it was during this time that the British resettled African slaves rescued from Arab slave traders on these islands. Thus, today the Seychelles islands present a melting pot of many races, including mixed French, African, Indian, Chinese, and Arab with the tourism sector playing a leading role in economic growth together with commercial fishing (CIA, 2012). The official language of Seychelles is English, but the use of the Creole language comes naturally to approximately 91.8% of the more than 90,024 inhabitants of these islands who live on an area of about 455 sq. km, which is 2.5 times the size of Washington DC, enclosed by a coastline that is 491 km in length. Seychelles was to become an independent nation in the year 1976, and Seychelles now exists as an Independent Republic with a democratically elected government within the British Commonwealth.

The Figures below depict the relative geographic position of Seychelles together with the more prominent islands in the Seychelles island group.

According to the CIA (2012), Seychelles has succeeded in expanding its per-capita output to approximately US$ 25,000 from a near-subsistence level at the time of independence, and this is a remarkable achievement for a country located near Africa. The tourism sector is the leading hard-currency earner, contributing nearly 70% to the foreign exchange earnings, but Seychelles has tried to diversify its export base to include farming, fishing, and small-scale manufacturing. It is important to note that Seychelles competes with Comoros, Madagascar, and Mauritius to attract tourists and this means that competition exists in tourism. However, according to Aviss (2006, pp. 270 - 278), a need exists for foreign investment to upgrade hotels and other services because Seychelles must constantly innovate to reduce its dependence on a vulnerable tourist sector. ...Download file to see next pages Read More