Maybank allocates RM10 million seed capital for waqf fund launched in April

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KUALA LUMPUR: Maybank Islamic Bhd has allocated RM10 million seed capital for Waqf Perak Ar-Ridzuan (WPAR), which was launched in early April this year.

Maybank Islamic chief executive officer, Datuk Muzaffar Hisham, said the contribution to WPAR included up to RM5 million for the building of the student hostel for Universiti Islam Sultan Azlan Shah and a general cash waqf of up to RM5 million from the public.

“We aim to meet the RM5 million target from the public in two years, and our Maybank2u system is ready for the public to make their donations,” he told reporters here yesterday after the announcement of the RM10 million waqf contribution.

He said the cash waqf’s unique feature will be a matching grant whereby for every RM1 contributed by the public via Maybank2u, Maybank Islamic will top up another RM1.

Muzaffar said waqf was one of the potential investments that could be developed to fund various economic activities, help develop healthcare and education for the benefits of the community.

“Waqf’s perpetual nature makes it a highly effective platform for sustainable economic growth,” he said.

Muzaffar said the bank was also scouting for more collaborations to expand its waqf funds in other states.

He said this initiative was to further enhance the bank’s agenda to humanise financial services in a sustainable way and to support the government’s commitment towards growing Islamic finance.

“Islamic finance is already seen as a potential catalyst for improving access to finance, particularly to alleviate poverty and promote entrepreneurialism and the unique redistributive instrument such as waqf aptly fulfils this agenda,” he said.

Maybank Islamic aims to become key catalyst in developing and broadening the horizon of waqf, with an asset size of RM161.1 billion as at March 31 this year.

On Maybank Islamic’s financial performance, Muzaffar said, it has managed to sustain its first quarter year-on-year performance despite headwinds in the market. — Bernama