Increasing Population and Housing Deficit in Nigeria: The Application of Islamic Finance as a Moderating Instrument.

The paper seeks to examine the role of Islamic finance as a mediating instrument in a case of an increasing population and housing deficit. The paper adopted a content review analysis and a modified revenue function approach in analyzing the potentials of the instruments of Islamic finance. The study focused on zakat, sadaqah and sukuk as tools of Islamic financing. E-Sadaqah was analyzed based on the number of active Telecoms line subscribers in Nigeria, and if N20 is paid weekly at a 5% level of cash collection error rate coupled with an admin expenses of 15%. The study revealed that zakat has the potentials of generating about USD8M-USD21M while sadaqah could generate N154 billion annually. If combined they can be used to improve the welfare or needs of the growing population. The study further revealed that sukuk if issued to the tune of N1,002 billion which can be utilized to build about 330,820 housing estate across the six (6) geopolitical zone of the country. The study concluded that Islamic finance can contribute significantly in addressing these economic ills of increasing population and housing deficit. The study recommends that efforts should be made on public awareness in order to enlightened the Nigerian populace about benefits of zakat, sadaqah, sukuk via local media like TV, radio in local dialects, magazines, articles, legal framework such as Zakat Act is required and deployment of IT infrastructure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]