Selangor zakat capital assistance program and the critical success factors of asnaf entrepreneurs / Nursyahirah Hairi and Nurul Nadhira Shamsudin

Zakat collection in Selangor is increasing every year. However, it is still insufficient to cover zakat distribution in Selangor Zakat Board (SZB) which indicates in increasing the number of zakat recipient. SZB has introduced zakat capital assistance program to increase the income of asnaf through entrepreneurship. This program also helps to reduce the number of zakat recipient and thus cater the problem of zakat distribution in Selangor. Objective of this research is to examine the effectiveness of zakat capital assistance program by SZB. This research also investigates the critical success factors of asnaf entrepreneurs. Besides that, the motivation of this research is to get in-depth information and quality finding. Therefore, this research adopts qualitative approach by interviewing Teraju Ekonomi Asnaf (TERAS) administrator and five successful asnaf entrepreneurs. The finding shows that the critical success factors of asnaf entrepreneurs are personal characteristics, having sufficient capital, support system and skills and knowledge. The findings of this research contribute to Selangor Government, SZB and TERAS that using capital assistance as a tool to reduce poverty. Moreover, findings from this qualitative research help future research that investigate capital assistance program.