Meeting the financial needs of Muslims through Islamic cooperative society: A case study of Albir Islamic cooperative society

Abstract

The concept of Islamic cooperative society is an interest-free cooperative where members come together to contribute money for the  purposes of lending one another devoid of interest that characterizes the conventional cooperative societies. Muslims in Nigeria,  particularly Ekiti State were conscious of the repercussions and the consequences of involving in riba (usury) based financial system as  contained in the glorious Qur’an and expatiated by various ahadith (recorded Sayings of Prophet Muhammad) of the Prophet. In line  with this, one of the most vibrant Islamic organizations in the State, the Muslim Students’ Society of Nigeria (MSSN) led the Muslims to  establish an interest-free cooperative society known as Albirr Islamic Cooperative Society (AICS). Today, AICS has become a household  name in the State and has been meeting the financial needs of this Muslim minority state. This paper brings to the fore the roles AICS is  playing in meeting the financial needs of the Muslims in Ekiti State as a micro Islamic financial institution. Records like ledgers, annual  financial records, minutes of monthly and general meetings, loan books, dividend books, general correspondence and membership  record books were accessed to evaluate the impacts on the Muslims in the State. A comparative analysis of the economic situations of  members before and after benefiting from the services of the Society was carried out to evaluate its impact on their economic wellbeing.  A questionnaire was designed for this which was subjected to validity tests by experts. The data obtained were analyzed by simple  percentage. The result shows that Albirr Islamic Cooperative Society is having a great positive impact on the economic lives of the  Muslims of Ekiti State through its interest-free loans and other services it is offering to its members.