Sadaqah or Zakat, giving charity is one of the main pillars of Islam. While Sadaqah is different from zakat, they are both aimed at achieving a common goal- making life easier for someone, for the pleasure of Allah.

Nigeria, as a country not governed by Islamic law, it’s not surprising to discover that most Muslims have a nonchalant attitude towards giving charity. The few Muslims who are conscious about charity giving, in most cases do not know how to go about it. Keep in mind, whilst there are rules governing Zakat (giving a certain portion of your wealth in charity), there are no rules with Sadaqah (loosely translated as giving alms or donations).

Sadaqah collection has been a major issue, in most cases, the needy and the poor have to go out of their ways to ask people for donation, that is a form of collection, there are institutions and NGOS that also help in collection of Sadaqah for the less privileged or towards a goal. The conventional Sadaqah collection methods available out there have all proven to be inefficient as they face certain challenges such as:

• Transparency: Once an individual or an organization launches a campaign, donors can’t confirm its authenticity. Hence, they only rely on information provided to them by the campaign launchers. In a country like Nigeria, with the high level of fraudulent activities, it is understandable the reasons why people won’t want to donate to causes they know little about.

• Accountability: In the event that the money was raised, often, due to greed and selfishness, campaign launchers do not use the funds for its intended purpose. Also, there isn’t any way for the donors to follow up on the project whilst donation target has been reached. Another major problem is in situations where campaign launchers eventually raise more than the amount needed or less than the amount needed, there is no system in place to deal with situations like this.

Such are the problems/challenges of the conventional Sadaqah collection methods. To this we have designed a platform called SADAKA.
Sadaka Nigeria is an online Islamic crowdfunding platform by Nigerian Muslims for Nigerian Muslims. Sadaka connects fundraisers to donors. Sadaka was created entirely due to the recognition of the fact that our community can only be progressive when collectively put resources together to help the needy amongst us. We want to cater for the material needs as well as the spiritual needs of fellow Muslims across Nigeria. A campaign launched to sponsor a Muslim medical student who in turn becomes a doctor and volunteers to work at Muslim IDPS, that’s what we are all about- ever living loop of goodness- Mercy! After all, the prophet wasn’t sent except as a mercy to the world.
We have put in place, systems to make it easy, launching a campaign, donating to a campaign, managing a campaign, helping a campaign, meet their target and also ensuring the implementation of campaign promises. Below are few of the advantages of SADAKA NIGERIA.

• Simplified, guided and monitored campaign launching methods- we have a simplified system that allows campaign launchers to set up their campaigns in few easy steps, from our website.

• Verification of campaign- we have a rigorous verification process for campaigns. We engage in both online and offline verifications of the campaigns before we can launch them. We have contract drawn, to be signed by campaign launchers. With this, donors can be assured that they are donating to a true cause.

• Accountability- every penny donated will be accounted for. We have a system where donors can see the target and the percentage of fund raised so they know to stop donating once the target has been reached.

• Supervision- we have a group of well to do volunteers who closely monitor once the campaign target has been met. They make sure the funds were used for their intended purposes, and the donors will be updated on the progress.

Sadaka hope to be a multi-national organization, with that, employment and entrepreneurship opportunities arise for the Muslim youths. Youths can also gain series of leadership experiences signing up to volunteer.

Being at the initial stage of its life, Sadaka faces series of challenges, the most important of which is, being registered as a non-profit organization in Nigeria which costs a lot. Currently, we operate under JAY BEE TECH, a Nigerian digital services company. To this, we will require financial support from individuals and organizations alike.

In order to function effectively, and being able to run Sadaka smoothly, we have decided to put up a campaign called “Sadaka kick start”, this gives us the financial resources required to run the organization smoothly on a monthly basis. On the human resources aspect, given that the work is voluminous, we will need volunteers on different aspects such as accounting, graphic/web designing, and event planners and so on. To this, volunteers can sign up by visiting us at www.sadaka.ng/volunteers/.

We currently have a campaign launched which we plan to carry out on an annual basis, it’s the Ramadhan iftar program where we plan on feeding more than 200 people every single day of Ramadhan, the number of days may vary depending on how much we are able to raise.
If you are interested in being a sponsor, a volunteer, a donor or if you have any complaints/complements, any recommendation or suggestions or constructive criticisms, you can contact us by visiting our website at www.sadaka.ng or send an email to us at sadaka.nigeria@gmail.com. May Allah (SWT) bless you as you share this with friends and family.

We also urge you to donate to our first campaign this Ramadhan to help Muslims break their fast https://sadaka.ng/campaigns/ramadhan-project-2019 . Thanks and God Bless you all.