JAKARTA - The Indonesian Waqf Agency (BWI) said that the absorption of cash waqf in the country is still far from the expected target.

Deputy Chairman of BWI, Imam Teguh Saptono, said that even though it had been launched since 2010, the cash waqf movement was still running on the spot.

"The accumulation of new cash waqf reached Rp2.23 trillion from the potential of around Rp180 trillion," said Imam at the 2024 Workshop and National Working Meeting of the Indonesian Waqf and Zakat Journalists Forum (Forjukafi) in Jakarta, Saturday, February 24, 2024.

Imam said there were a number of factors that caused this to happen. One of them is the low literacy of cash waqf in the community for a comprehensive category of knowledge or advanced knowledge.

"Most people's understanding is still limited to land or building waqf such as mosques. Meanwhile, cash waqf literacy is not yet understood," he said.

According to Imam, increasing literacy about cash waqf does require its own strategy because it is related to banking financial instruments.

Currently, there are a number of financial instruments provided by financial institutions related to waqf. For example, Cash Waqf Linked Retail Sukuk (CWLS) Retail, Sukuk Linked Waqh (SLW) or Cash Waqh Linked Deposit (CLWD).

"These instruments are considered to be still too complicated for the public to understand. Thus, they are one of the factors that have not been maximally absorbed by the potential for cash waqf in Indonesia," he said.

Therefore, Imam encouraged all parties, including journalists, to participate in increasing cash waqf literacy so that the expected potential could be achieved.

"Even so, in general, the development of waqf in Indonesia has shown a very good performance improvement," he said.

This is reflected in the area of waqf land in Indonesia which has reached 57,263 hectares (ha) and spread over 440,512 locations. Then, in 2023 the recorded waqf institutions also increased to 407 institutions and 44 Islamic banks.

"Meanwhile, the BWI waqf institution currently exists throughout Indonesia, which consists of one Central BWI institution, 24 Provincial BWI, and 271 BWI City Regency," he said.


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