Dubai Future Finance Week Opens as DIFC Plans Tenfold Expansion of Its Academy

The first edition of the DIFC-led week runs until November 6 with more than 1,000 speakers, and the financial centre's training academy will grow to a campus for over 50,000 learners a year by 2030.

By Nakoda News Desk

3 days ago·2 min read

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The Dubai International Financial Centre has opened the first Dubai Future Finance Week. It is a series of events on how artificial intelligence, financial technology and shifting capital flows are changing global finance, Al Bayan reported.

Sheikh Maktoum bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, First Deputy Ruler of Dubai, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Finance and President of DIFC, attended the opening. The week runs until November 6 and has more than 1,000 speakers and over 100 events across 12 main forums and 14 platforms in Dubai, according to the report.

Sheikh Maktoum said Dubai was building an economic model that anticipates change and turns global challenges into growth opportunities. He described the financial sector as central to attracting investment and connecting markets. He said Dubai was developing a financial system that combines advanced infrastructure, flexible regulation, innovation and specialist talent in support of the Dubai Economic Agenda D33, and that the emirate had moved from keeping pace with financial change to leading it.

Fintech Summit Opens the Week

The week began with the Dubai FinTech Summit on November 2 and 3, its main event. Opening-day sessions covered how financial institutions are adapting to AI-based banking models, changing capital flows, new financial corridors, interoperable payment systems and the future of money, Al Bayan reported.

In his opening speech, DIFC Governor Essa Kazim said Dubai had become one of the world's top ten financial centres in a little over two decades, and that DIFC's ambitions went further. Speakers on the first day included Shanu Hinduja, chair of Arya Bank Privée; Arshad Ghafur, Bank of America's head for the Middle East and North Africa; and Jason Moo, chief executive of Bank of Singapore. Government speakers included Omar Al Olama, the UAE's Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence.

Academy Expansion

Kazim also announced plans to expand the DIFC Academy tenfold to 370,000 square feet as part of the Zabeel District DIFC expansion project. Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman of the Dubai Civil Aviation Authority and Chairman and Chief Executive of Emirates Airline and Group, toured the exhibition and unveiled the expansion. Arif Amiri, chief executive of the DIFC Authority, briefed him on the project.

The academy will move from three floors to a purpose-built campus of three buildings with capacity for more than 50,000 learners a year by 2030, according to the report. Plans include 54 lecture halls, five research spaces, 23 academic offices, seven technology-equipped classrooms and a graduation hall. The academy has produced more than 51,620 graduates of its executive education programmes over two decades.

Amiri said talent was central to Dubai's plans to lead the future of finance. He said the larger academy would give more room to build the specialist skills the sector increasingly needs.

Why It Matters

The new week brings DIFC's fintech, wealth and policy events under one brand as Dubai competes for financial firms, family offices and AI-focused fintech businesses. The academy plan is a bet that a shortage of skilled staff, not capital, may be the tighter limit on the financial centre's growth as banks speed up AI adoption. The Dubai Financial Services Authority said this week that AI use among DIFC firms has passed 70 percent.