Chowdhury Nafeez Sarafat is a

Bangladeshi Bangladeshis ( ) are the citizens and nationals of Bangladesh, a South Asian country centred on the transnational historical region of Bengal along the Bay of Bengal, eponymous bay. Bangladeshi nationality law, Bangladeshi citizenship was fo ...

businessman connected to the

Awami League The Awami League, officially known as Bangladesh Awami League, is a major List of political parties in Bangladesh, political party in Bangladesh. The oldest existing political party in the country, the party played the leading role in achievin ...

government. Sarafat is the founder chairman of the board of trustees of Canadian University of Bangladesh. He was the chairman of Padma Bank PLC.

Early life

Sarafat is from Gopalganj District. His older brother is

sports commentator In Broadcasting of sports events, sports broadcasting, a sports commentator (also known as a sports announcer or sportscaster) provides a real time (media), real-time live commentary of a game or event, traditionally delivered in the present t ...

Chowdhury Jafarullah Sharafat.

Career

Sarafat started his career in 1999 at

Standard Chartered Bank Standard Chartered PLC is a British multinational bank with operations in wealth management, Wholesale banking, corporate and investment banking, and treasury services. Despite being headquartered in the United Kingdom, it does not conduct retai ...

. He was appointed a director of

IFIC Bank The International Finance Investment and Commerce Bank PLC. commonly known as IFIC Bank is a first generation Bangladeshi private commercial bank. IFIC Bank PLC is a banking company incorporated in the People's Republic of Bangladesh with limit ...

and left Standard Chartered Bank after questions were raised about his connections to two banks simultaneously. In 2008, Sarafat joined ICB Islamic Bank as the Head of Consumer Banking. On 15 December 2016, Sarafat received his Doctorate in Business Administration from Commonwealth University-London. In January 2018, Sarafat was appointed chairman of Farmers Bank Limited, later renamed to Padma Bank, after its chairman

Muhiuddin Khan Alamgir Muhiuddin Khan Alamgir (born 1 March 1942) is a Bangladeshi politician. He was a Jatiya Sangsad member representing the Chandpur-1 constituency since 2008, and was Minister of Home Affairs from 2011 to 2013. He is also an economist, former civ ...

resigned over allegations of embezzling from the bank. He is the Head of Consumer Banking of ICB Islamic Bank Limited. Sarafat is the founding chairman of Canadian University of Bangladesh. The university awards Sarafat Chowdhury Merit Scholarship. In October 2021, Benoit Prefontaine, Canadian High Commissioner to Bangladesh, laid the foundation stone for the permanent campus of Canadian University of Bangladesh in Purbachal in a ceremony presided by Sarafat. In 2022, Sarafat became a director of the National Tea Company Limited. He founded two news organizations, ''

Dainik Bangla ''The Dainik Bangla'' is a Bengali-language daily newspaper in Bangladesh. The newspaper was closed in 1997 and was later revived on 4 September 2022 by an editorial panel led by Nazrul Islam Mazumder and Chowdhury Nafeez Sharafat. History ''Dai ...

'' and ''newsbangla24.com''. He founded Citizen TV with Muhammad Shafiqur Rahman, member of parliament, who later alleged Sarafat and Benazir Ahmed forcefully took shares of the TV from him. The cartoonist Ahmed Kabir Kishore was arrested under the

Digital Security Act The Digital Security Act, 2018, was a digital security law in Bangladesh. This act was passed with the aim of preventing the spread of racism, sectarianism, extremism, terrorist propaganda, and hatred against religious or ethnic minorities throug ...

for drawing cartoons critical of the government, including one where he portrayed Sarafat as a bank embezzler. Sarafat owns RACE Portfolio and Issue Management which was one of the issue manager in the aborted attempt to list Best Holdings Limited whose permission was denied by Bangladesh Bank. Another issue manager, the government owned ICB Capital Management, denied any involvement with the company. He is a director of Unique Hotel and Resorts Limited, which owns Westin Dhaka. He and his wife are directors of Race Financial Management Inc. and Can-Ban Chambers House, based in Canada. He is a major shareholder of RACE Asset Management. He is a member of the executive committee of Bangladesh Association of Banks. He is the Managing Director of Unique Meghnaghat Power Limited, a subsidiary of Unique group.

Personal life

Sarafat is married to Anjuman Ara Shahid. She served as the chairman of Strategic Finance and Investment Limited and later director of Southeast Bank.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sarafat, Chowdhury Nafeez Living people Bangladeshi businesspeople Bangladeshi bankers People from Gopalganj District, Bangladesh Year of birth missing (living people)