Browsing by Author "Abioye, Mustafa Murtala Oladimeji"

Zakat empowerment scheme is a disbursement method of facilitating engagement of zakat beneficiaries in gainful economic activities through funding of skill acquisition and provision of relevant tools or machine. Unfortunately, the use of this method fell into disuse due to a long period of departure of Muslims from pristine tenets of zakat as a result of colonization of Muslim lands. As a way out of ravaging poverty, Pakistan revived this method in 2001 and it is being experimented by two other countries in Southeast Asia. Zakat is a multidimensional tool, therefore, this study, a synthesis of literature on zakat, stakeholders’ theory, concepts and dimensions of accountability and empowerment as well as management and task controls aimed at identifying the stakeholders of the new Zakat disbursement strategy and understanding its control mechanisms and the influence of the stakeholders on these controls. The methodology of a Cross-sectional field study was adopted to study the empowerment schemes in the Majlis Ugama Islam Singapura (MUIS) and Lembaga Zakat Selangor (LZS) due to paucity of adopters of the scheme. Despite this limitation, the study was able to identify and categorize stakeholders of empowerment schemes in the two institutions; understand the control mechanisms of the scheme and the influence of stakeholders on the scheme. The findings of this study should give a positive impact on the management of zakat beneficiaries by the institutions. Again, being the first attempt to study accountability practices in Zakat institution using the stakeholders’ theory, the study has opened a new dimension to the study of Zakat as a social institution and, in a way, added to the body of accounting knowledge.

There is a growing lack of trust in zakat institutions across Muslims countries as a result of allegations regarding allocation of zakat funds to public amenities and the use of zakat funds to support terrorist groups. Although the impacts of trust of Zakat payers on their selection of a particular institution into which they pay their religious obligatory levy have been documented, there is yet to be an empirical study on how Zakat payers’ trust is built. Consistent with Mayer, et al. (1995) integrative model of organisational trust and Resource Dependence as well as Stakeholders theories, this study developed a model of Zakat payers trust linking governance mechanisms to trust in Zakat institutions. Using survey data from an emerging Zakat sector, structural equation modeling software was used to test the model of Zakat payers’ trust. Three components of governance, including attributes of trustees, disclosure and Zakat stakeholder management practices were found to explain variation in Zakat payers’ trust. Perception of attributes of trustees was also found to have positive and significant impact on the perceptions of disclosure and Zakat stakeholder management practices. In line with sequential mixed methods tradition, the survey findings were complemented with follow-up interviews. The model of Zakat payers developed constitutes a significant contribution to Zakat management literature, and an evidence for applicability of integrative model of organisational trust as well as support for resource dependence and stakeholder theories. Similarly, the findings should provide practical guide for policy makers in the formulation of policies on selecting members of boards of Zakat institutions and appropriate direction to Zakat managers on disclosure and stakeholder management practices that will be beneficial to Zakat organisations and their stakeholders. Finally the preliminary findings from the exploratory study should serve as reference for future research on Zakat management in Nigeria.