Baznas Strengthens MSME Empowerment Programme for Mustahik

The National Amil Zakat Agency (Baznas) is exploring a collaboration with the Sabana Foundation to strengthen the ecosystem of the ZChicken MSME empowerment programme through enhanced branding, business mentoring, and the development of a data-based monitoring system. The synergy was discussed during a meeting at the Baznas RI Office in Jakarta, as a step to increase the effectiveness and sustainability of the economic empowerment programme for mustahik. The collaboration being prepared includes refining operational aspects, strengthening brand identity, improving the quality of mentoring, and implementing a more integrated monitoring system utilising information technology. Chairman of Baznas RI, Sodik Mudjahid, emphasised that strengthening the system is crucial to ensure that businesses provided to mustahik do not stall but can develop sustainably. ‘Through this strengthening, we hope the programme does not stop or lose its benefits, but continues to grow and provide a greater economic impact for beneficiaries,’ said Sodik. He assessed that the cooperation is a momentum to modernise the management of empowerment programmes while ensuring that the businesses run by mustahik have better growth prospects. According to him, investment in a higher quality mentoring system remains necessary as long as it can guarantee the continuity of the beneficiaries’ businesses. ‘The most important thing is how this programme has sustainability. If additional investment is needed to ensure the business continues to run, of course, it needs to be considered rationally,’ he said. As a follow-up, Baznas and the Sabana Foundation agreed to assign their respective technical teams to draft a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and a Cooperation Agreement as the basis for implementing the collaboration. Meanwhile, CEO of Sabana Foundation, M. Haden Aulia H., outlined several development plans, ranging from improving branding and intensive business mentoring to supply chain digitalisation to increase ZChicken’s competitiveness. Sabana also proposed the use of an information technology system that allows real-time monitoring of daily turnover, so that business development can be monitored directly from the centre while supporting product quality standardisation. ‘We want to encourage business scale improvement through strengthening design, branding, mentoring, and information technology-based monitoring. With an integrated system, sales development can be monitored daily so that the coaching process becomes more effective,’ said Haden. The collaboration is expected to strengthen the zakat-based economic empowerment model by combining business mentoring, digital innovation, and more measurable management so that fostered MSMEs can grow more independently and sustainably.