Prioritising sustainable economic empowerment strategies for micro waqf banks in Banten Province

This study aims to (1) identify the key elements supporting the sustainability of Micro Waqf Bank (MWB) policies and (2) prioritise sustainable economic empowerment strategies for MWBs. The study employs a Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) approach using the Analytic Network Process (ANP), integrating qualitative expert insights with quantitative pairwise comparison judgments from ten experts representing regulators, facilitators, academics, donors, clients, managers, and Islamic microfinance practitioners. The empirical analysis focuses on three MWBs in Banten Province: Lan Taburo, El Manahij, and An Nawawi. The findings indicate that the key elements of sustainable MWB policies include Sharia-compliant business financing, no-collateral financing, low-margin schemes, mentoring and training, group financing models, cooperative legal entities, Islamic microfinance institutions, community empowerment, and funding sources. The main priorities within the sustainable economic empowerment strategy are Sharia-compliant business financing as the institutional policy priority, access to capital as the sustainable economic empowerment priority, and a self-sustaining business model as the preferred policy alternative. This study contributes to the Islamic social finance literature by developing an ANP-based policy prioritisation framework for sustainable economic empowerment through Micro Waqf Banks. The study is limited by its regional scope and relatively small expert sample. Future research may extend the analysis through comparative and longitudinal studies to examine broader socio-economic impacts across diverse regions.