Increased Sharia Financial Literacy Is Considered Still Slow

Rupiah illustration (Photo: dock. Antara)

JAKARTA - The increase in Islamic economic and financial literacy in the country is considered still slow with the realization that has only reached 23.4 percent of the target of 50 percent.

According to Islamic economic observer Adiwarman A. Karim, the challenge at this time is that it is difficult to discuss the sharia economy into a language that is easier for the public to understand.

"The sharia economy is too difficult for the general public to understand, using Arabic, for example, Arabic, yes, but it must also be conveyed a language that is easy for the public to understand and understand," Adiwarman quoted Antara as saying.

In addition, Adiwarman continued, massive and sustainable collaboration between various parties is needed to encourage the success of increasing Islamic economic literacy.

"If the company is small, then our ability to carry out literacy is also small. Therefore, we must cooperate with OJK, BI, and MUI. Together because we can't submit literacy to each rich company Allianz itself. So this will make literacy better," said Adiwarman.

Adiwarman said that in increasing Islamic financial literacy, communities, Islamic boarding schools, mosques, and the recitation community must be involved, so that they are not separated from Islamic finance in big cities.

Based on the National Survey of Indonesian Financial Literacy (SNLIK) conducted by the Financial Services Authority (OJK), in 2022 the overall level of financial literacy will reach 49 percent, while the literacy rate for Islamic finance is 9.14 percent, so there is still a gap or a difference of around 40 percent.

The gap shows that there are only 9 out of 100 people who actually do Islamic finance.

The new Islamic financial inclusion rate reached 12.12 percent, far behind the general financial inclusion rate which reached 85 percent.

OJK assesses that there are a number of causes that cause the level of literacy and inclusion of Islamic finance to be small. One of them is that public understanding of Islamic finance is still low even though awareness of Islamic finance is high.