Religious Affairs Ministry to Develop 32 Community Funds for Public Benefit

Jakarta (ANTARA) – The Ministry of Religious Affairs will develop 32 community funds to support programmes for public benefit, including efforts to lift people out of poverty.

“We are talking about empowering the community’s economy. We are currently strengthening the community economic ecosystem through 32 community funds that we are developing,” Religious Affairs Minister Nasaruddin Umar said at a press conference on the ministry’s achievements over the past two years at its office in Jakarta on Monday.

Nasaruddin said developing these funds was part of efforts to strengthen the state’s role, through the ministry, in improving public welfare.

He said the management of the various funding sources needed to be strengthened through better data collection and the development of an economic empowerment ecosystem, so that the funds could be used more effectively.

The minister said President Prabowo Subianto had welcomed the initiative and was planning to build a community economic empowerment centre.

He stressed that economic empowerment through community funds was not intended solely for Muslims, but would also include people of other religions.

The ministry is therefore encouraging comprehensive data collection on the potential community funds of different religious groups, so they can be used to help address poverty.

Nasaruddin hopes the funds will become one source of financing for poverty-alleviation programmes, allowing the state budget to focus more on other vital needs.

“If our ideas for addressing poverty in our communities succeed, God willing, the community funds we are now developing could help finance those efforts,” he said.

Ministry Secretary-General Kamaruddin Amin said zakat collections in 2025 reached around Rp44 trillion, while cash waqf collections totalled Rp4.7 trillion.

Those figures do not include other community funds or collections from other religions. The ministry has also provided support to 25 waqf city locations.

“Cash waqf collections now stand at Rp4.7 trillion. This money is invested, and the investment returns are distributed to the public through community empowerment programmes. We now have 467,237 waqf land sites,” Kamaruddin said.