Indonesia Targets 1,000 Zakat Villages in 2023

Tanah Bumbu, MINA – Minister of Religion Yaqut Cholil Qoumas targets that by 2023, there will be 1,000 Zakat Villages spread across various regions in Indonesia.

“We have discussed it with various zakat management institutions, currently there are only 514 zakat villages. We will expand it again this year to 1,000 zakat villages,” said Yaqut when inaugurating Zakat Village in Suka Maju Village, Batulicin District, Tanah Bumbu Regency, South Kalimantan (South Kalimantan) on Tuesday.

Kampung Zakat is one of the synergy programs between the Directorate General of Islamic Community Guidance, the Ministry of Religion, with Basnaz (National Amil Zakat Agency) and other zakat management institutions.

Kampung Zakat was launched as an effort to alleviate poverty and leverage the people’s economy in various regions in Indonesia, including the 3T areas.

“If this goes well, I’m sure the government’s efforts to relieve poverty will be driven by the existence of zakat villages initiated and established by the community,” he said.

The Minister of Religion said that zakat is worship that is material as well as social. In the Al-Quran, zakat is an important worship and should not be abandoned by Muslims.

“The initiation of the zakat village from the Directorate General of Islamic Community Guidance at the Ministry of Religion is at the same time a reminder to all of us, that those who are well off have an obligation to set aside assets for tithing which in fact is the rights of other people entrusted to us,” he said.

He added, currently the poverty rate in Indonesia is around 9.57 percent. Of the 260 million Indonesian people, as many as 22 million are in the poor category.

“This is a pretty big number. So the efforts of the people who founded Kampung Zakat are part of efforts to accelerate the release of poverty,” he concluded. (T/RE1)

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)