NAN-H-49
Zakkat
By Yakubu Uba
Yola, Jan. 27, 2018 (NAN) The Jaiz Zakkat and Waqf Trust Fund in collaboration with the Muslim Council of Nigeria have offered support to 117 needy people, including victims of the Boko Haram insurgency in Adamawa.
Speaking at a forum on the initiative in Yola on Saturday, the Chairman of Adamawa chapter of Muslim Council of Nigeria, Alhaji Abubakar Sahabo, said the initiative, the second phase of the support package, was N5 million for 117 beneficiaries.
Sahabo said that the beneficiaries comprised of 70 people for empowerment, 21 for medical support, 17 for educational support and nine for resettlement and rehabilitation.
He lauded the initiative by the fund and urged other organisations to emulate the gesture.
Also speaking at the forum, the Lamido of Adamawa, Alhaji Barkindo Mustafa, represented by the Galadima of Adamawa, Alhaji Mustafa Aminu, commended the gesture and urged beneficiaries to make judicious use of the opportunity provided for them.
The Director General of the fund, Amb. Adamu Babangida, said the fund was created as part of the corporate social responsibility of Jaiz Bank.
Babangida also said that the fund was giving priority to the North East Zone in view of the security challenge in the area.
He said similar Zakkat support had been made to beneficiaries in Borno and Yobe while it would be extended to Taraba, Kano, Anambra, Lagos and Abuja.
Speaking on the importance of Zakkat, an Islamic cleric, Mallam Abubakar Jauro, noted that Zakkat was one of the five pillars of Islam without which one’s faith was incomplete.
Jauro said that apart from bridging the gap between the rich and poor in the society, giving Zakkat purifies wealth.
Umar Mohammed, a student of the Federal College of Education, Yola, and Usman Mohammed , a petty trader, who once benefitted from the Jaiz Fund Zakkat initiative, at the forum shared their experiences on how it positively impacted on their education and business. (NAN)
YMU/OJO
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(Edited by Mufutau Ojo)