TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Digitalizing zakat is more relevant now
Based on the World Giving Index 2016, Indonesia is the seventh most generous country in the world.
Change Size
Muslims pay zakat fitrah alms at Istiqlal Mosque in Jakarta on Friday. During Ramadhan, Muslims are obliged to pay the special alms that will be distributed to those in need. (JP/Seto Wardhana)
B
ased on the World Giving Index 2016, Indonesia is the seventh most generous country in the world. About three out of four Indonesians say that they donated money in the last month prior to the interview, while only 63 percent of United States and 69 percent of UK citizens said they did the same thing.
On the contrary, according to National Zakat Board of Indonesia (BAZNAS) only Rp3.65 trillion (Rp 272 million) or 1.68 percent of zakat been collected in 2015 out of Rp 217 trillion of its potential amount in Indonesia. Thus, digitalizing zakat and other forms of charity could be a way to bridge philanthropy with charity.
Zakat is a form of alms-giving treated in Islam as a religious obligation. Digitalizing zakat is not merely a shifting from cash based to a non-cash based transaction. It’s more than that. The scope of digitalizing zakat is relevant in at least three areas. The first area is digital zakat collection.
A report by WeAreSocial states that there are about 88.1 million active internet users in Indonesia as of January 2016. At that time, about 43 percent of the total adult population owned at least one smartphone and spent about three hours and 33 minutes on average accessing the internet.
Moreover, 20 percent of mobile activities were spent in mobile banking and 20 percent of mobile users admitted using a mobile phone to shop online. Those indicate that there is a captive market for digital transactions in Indonesian society. Hence, zakat operators should grab this opportunity by developing a zakat mobile application that makes it easier for people to pay zakat.
Moreover, zakat operators also need to cooperate with bank and telecommunications providers who offer electronic money services.
That will open a wider opportunity to establish hybrid donation channels for the donators.
