Central Asia: Takaful is a budding business in a region with 85% Muslim population
Source: Middle East Insurance Review | Jul 2025
Central Asian nations make a modest contribution to the industry, with reported total Islamic finance assets of $699m in 2023, or 0.01% of total global assets, says the report, “The Future of Islamic Finance in Central Asia”.
The report is published jointly by Eurasian Development Bank (EDB), the Islamic Development Bank Institute (IsDBI) and the London Stock Exchange Group. It examines the potential of Islamic finance to foster sustainable economic growth in Central Asia. It evaluates the current state of the sector, highlights opportunities and challenges, and offers actionable recommendations to unlock its growth.
The countries covered in the report are:
The region’s regulatory frameworks and legal environments for Islamic finance are generally in the nascent stages, compared to those in highly developed markets. Among the Central Asian countries, Kazakhstan and the Kyrgyz Republic have made significant progress in establishing their regulatory and legal frameworks for Islamic finance.
In status of the takaful sector is as follows in the five markets covered:
- Kazakhstan is building on strong foundations to develop its Islamic finance industry, as can be seen by the introduction of the Islamic Finance Master Plan 2020-2025 prepared for the Astana International Finance Centre (AIFC) with technical assistance from the IsDB. The key pillars covered under the Master Plan include takaful; the internationalisation of the AIFC; Islamic banking; an Islamic capital market; Islamic non-banking institutions; Islamic social finance; FinTech; the halal sector; and Islamic finance education and training.
- Kyrgyzstan has also shown a progressive approach to developing an Islamic finance ecosystem. Legal frameworks for takaful and securities issued on Islamic principles (sukuk) have been introduced. Takaful regulations were issued in 2009. The country’s concept for the establishment of an Islamic economic platform for 2023-2027 includes the development of the Islamic insurance market (i.e., the possibility of organising and launching a separate deposit insurance fund for financial and credit institutions operating according to Islamic principles) and the Islamic securities market, as well as increasing public awareness of Islamic finance.
- Tajikistan does not currently have any takaful institution.
- Turkmenistan does not currently have any Islamic financial institution.
- Uzbekistan currently has one takaful operator — Apex Insurance. M