Revive wakaf development as financial instrument - Amanie Advisors

KUALA LUMPUR - The development of wakaf (Islamic endowment) must be revived from the financial instrument perspective, said the shariah advisory firm Amanie Advisors Sdn Bhd.

Its chairman Tan Sri Mohd Daud Bakar said that this would make wakaf more functional to enable the growth of the Islamic social finance segment.

He said presently waqf in Malaysia is no longer looked at from the financial perspective such as from the financial modelling and taxation, but more from the shariah perspective.

"(Thus), wakaf is not given the right function as an instrument to develop the communities.

"Moving forward, we have to relook into wakaf as a new instrument, (at par with the) environmental, social and governance framework, so that it can do more than what we have seen today,” he said during the panel discussion at the Sustainable and Responsible Investment (SRI) Virtual Conference 2023 today.

Mohd Daud urged the country to emulate Singapore which had successfully transformed its small-scale wakaf to become scalable through many interesting and unique products.

Earlier, Securities Commission Malaysia chairman Datuk Seri Awang Adek Hussin said in his opening address that wakaf is a charitable trust that can be utilised for social causes such as education, healthcare and poverty alleviation.

The development of wakaf is identified as an area with significant potential for social development, greater public good and wealth distribution, he said.

In 2020, the regulator had launched a new framework to facilitate the offering of Islamic funds with wakaf features, he added. - BERNAMA