PM Anwar Announces Allocation Of RM35 Million To Support Waqf Ecosystem

PUTRAJAYA, Feb 27 (Bernama) -- The government has in principle agreed to allocate funds totalling RM35 million to support and boost the waqf ecosystem in Malaysia, said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

He said of the total, RM30 million would be channelled to support the myWaqafPTPTN programme and the other RM5 million would be for the Permodalan Wakaf Nasional Bhd (PWNB).

“This (RM30 million for myWaqafPTPTN) is an educational waqf scholarship, which is managed jointly by Yayasan Waqaf Malaysia and PTPTN (Perbadanan Tabung Pendidikan Tinggi Nasional Bhd), and the RM5 million is an initial capital to establish the Permodalan Wakaf Nasional Bhd,” he said.

Anwar, who is also the Minister of Finance, said this when launching the 2025 National Waqf Month celebration at the Putrajaya International Convention Centre (PICC) here, today.

The myWaqafPTPTN programme was launched last year and the announcement of the RM30 million allocation is the government's new injection for this year to help students from the asnaf, M40 and B40 groups.

Meanwhile, the allocation for PWNB (previously known as Perbadanan Waqaf Nasional Bhd) is aimed at managing larger waqf funds, especially in assisting the development of Islamic social finance (waqf, baitulmal, zakat).

Meanwhile, Anwar said that several Malay-owned companies have expressed their willingness to strengthen the country's waqf economy through contributions to Wakaf MADANI.

“Now we are detailing several regulations, including the conditions that they want to include in the regulations and the new waqf entity (PWNB),” he said.

The Prime Minister said the Department of Waqf, Zakat and Haj (JAWHAR) will also coordinate the implementation of the collaboration to ensure that all matters related to waqf can run smoothly.

Also present were the Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Religious Affairs) Datuk Dr Mohd Na'im Mokhtar and the Malaysian Islamic Development Department (Jakim) director-general Datuk Dr Sirajuddin Suhaimee.

-- BERNAMA