ZAKAT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM: AN ISLAMIC MANIFESTATION OF MAN’S HUMANITY TO MAN

Zakāt is one of the principles of Islam which aims at improving the socioeconomic condition of the poor by distributing the wealth of the society in such a manner that no member of the society is left uncared for. In Nigeria, the problem of multi-religious nature of the country makes it difficult to have a well-functioning zakāt management institution provided by the government to manage zakāt collection and distribution. Thereby, zakāt management is left to private Islamic organizations and mostly to the individual zakāt payers which rendered the management of zakāt ineffective as many Muslims still live in abject poverty since they do not feel the impact of the distributions of zakāt by Muslim groups. This paper is thereby designed to root out the factors inhibiting the proper functioning of zakāt management in the Southwestern Nigeria with the hope of putting forward appropriate solutions. The paper adopts a descriptive method where interview was used majorly to collect data from poor Muslims and the Muslim organizations that are involved in zakāt collection and distribution. Findings revealed that zakat institutions in the southwestern Nigeria have not achieved the aim of eradicating poverty among Muslim simply because, it is very difficult for the Muslim organizations to determine the rate of Nisāb of the wealthy individual that is due for the payment of zakāt since it is not managed by the government. This brings about the problem of insufficiency in the annual zakāt funds at the disposal of the groups. The paper recommends some of the things needed for the government to establish a ministry headed by the Nigeria Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) that will manage the collection and distribution of zakāt in order to take care of the poor, needy, and those put by the Qur’an under the beneficiaries of zakāt.