In the UAE, the Zakat Fund website offers more than 56 e-services for facilitating the process of paying zakat in line with the UAE government's push towards smart government services, the authority specialising in collecting money for zakat and charity and spending it on the eight legal channels of zakat disclosed.
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| Source: Zakat Fund |
Those paying zakat can pay by credit card online, through ATMs installed in shopping centres in Abu Dhabi, Al Ain, and the Western Region, or through various online portals, including the official portal of the UAE government, the portal of the Abu Dhabi E-Government, and the official portal of the Dubai government, as well as the Etihad Airways portal, said H.H Abdullah ibn Aqeedah Al Muhairy, Secretary-General of the Zakat Fund.
H.H said, “The Fund offered zakat payers more than 2,000 ATMs owned by Islamic banks, more than 1,000 ATMs for fast collection owned by Max Box, the electronic collector...and other means which facilitate the process of paying zakat."
Other payment channels include mobile phone apps on both iOS and Android platforms, and SMS, he added.
H.H. disclosed that January statistics from the Arab IT News Portal stated that about 81% of UAE users use the Internet to log into social networking websites, representing 3 hours and 17 minutes of daily use each.
Facebook is the most popular social networking platform used in the UAE, followed by Google+, then Twitter, Linkedin, and Instagram respectively. The study stated that 74% of UAE users have smartphones, which 38% use for e-shopping and 90% use for searching for local services.
He further added that Zakat Fund, through its pages on social networking websites, aims to increase public awareness of zakat and transparency on the dealings of the Fund.
*Pictures from the Zakat Fund website