Towards an effective management of zakah in Nigeria: lessons from Malaysia

Abstract

Civilizations and religions have shown concern for the alleviation of poverty in the world. Islam particularly emphasises on the alleviation of poverty to the extent of making it one of its pillars. History has demonstrated the efficacy of the teachings of religion in this regard. Mosques and Muslim organisations in Nigeria have made efforts to apply the teachings of Islam in alleviating poverty by administering Zakah. However, these efforts seem to leave room for more improvements in the area of the management of Zakah. Conversely, Malaysia seems to be more efficient and effective in its Zakah administration. The Malaysian model of Zakah administration entails the outsourcing of Zakah management to private professional firms. Nigeria can learn profitably from the Malaysian experience. To that end, mosques and Muslim organisations concerned with the administration of Zakah in Nigeria could unite to form a synergy by establishing a National Zakah Agency with the aim of supervising the administration of Zakah in Nigeria. The Agency should then outsource the administration of Zakah to private professional bodies. This would likely inject life into the administration of Zakah in the country.