KUALA LUMPUR: A total of 480 tithe recipients have been trained under the Asnaf Entrepreneurship programme by the Federal Territory Islamic Religious Council (MAIWP) as of last month.,
Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Religious Affairs) Datuk Dr Mohd Na’im Mokhtar said the implementation of the programme, aimed at removing the “asnaf” (tithe recipients) from the vicious circle of poverty, was a success as it exceeded the target of 450 asnaf.
“Besides going to the ground to help them (asnaf), it is also important that we have programmes that can bring out the asnaf from the vicious circle of poverty, whereby MAIWP has introduced no less than 34 schemes for the asnaf.
“We also have entrepreneurship training, where 480 asnaf have benefitted from the programme as of last month, although the target was only 450 asnaf,” he said when appearing as a guest on RTM’s Selamat Pagi Malaysia programme.
Mohd Na’im attributed the success of the programme to the strategy under the Religious Affairs Transformation Plan Towards Malaysia MADANI (Al-Falah) which also included shortening the period for the processing of the halal certification.
“The initiative to shorten the processing period for halal certification from 90 days to 30 days has also recorded an encouraging achievement, with 63 per cent of the applications for halal certification processed compared to the set target of 60 per cent, ” he said.–Bernama
