Zakat on savings in Algeria: nisab, hawl and calculation

Zakat nisab in Algeria: how the ministry sets it

The nisab is the threshold from which zakat al-mal, the zakat on wealth, is due. The Ministry of Religious Affairs and Wakfs announces it each year at the start of the Hijri year: twenty gold dinars, which it puts at 85 g of gold, multiplied by the price of a gram of 18-carat gold.

In its statement of 18 June 2026, reported by APS, the ministry gave the price set by AGENOR, the national gold agency: 27 000 DA a gram, so 85 × 27 000 DA = 2 295 000 DA. Outlets label these figures with different Hijri years, so go by the date of the announcement.

The nisab doubled in two years, and not because the dinar lost half its value at the épicerie: everyday prices rose far less, as our article on inflation and the household budget shows. Gold is what climbed, so the same savings can be above the nisab one year and below it two years later.

2.5% after a full lunar year: the hawl, and why Ashura

The rate is the same for everyone: 2.5%, a quarter of a tenth, of wealth that reached the nisab and was held for a full year, the hawl. The ministry counts cash, bank and postal savings and goods held for sale, valued at their price on the day of payment.

The hawl is a lunar (Hijri) year of about 354 days, some eleven days shorter than the calendar year, so a zakat date kept by the Hijri calendar comes about eleven days earlier each year.

Many Algerian families make the days from the Hijri new year to Ashura (10 Muharram) their zakat season, a custom the daily An Nasr described in 2023. The ministry announces the new nisab at the beginning of Muharram, a few days before Ashura. Others prefer Ramadan. Either way, the useful habit is one date, kept every year.

How to calculate zakat on your savings, step by step

1. Choose your zakat date: Ashura, the first of Ramadan, or the day your savings first reached the nisab. Keep it every year.
2. On that day, add up what you hold: cash at home, your Edahabia card (CCP account), your bank and CNEP accounts, any envelope set aside.
3. Add foreign currency at its value in dinars that day, at the rate you use, and gold kept as savings at its value that day. Scholars differ on jewellery that is worn and on some details of valuation: a question for your imam.
4. Take off the debts you must pay now: an installment that is due, money to give back this month. This is a common view; views differ on long loans, such as a housing loan.
5. Compare the result with the latest nisab announced by the ministry: 2 295 000 DA since 18 June 2026.
6. If you reach it, the zakat is 2.5% of the whole total, not just the part above the nisab: divide by 40.

Worked example: three households and the 2026 nisab

Three households count what they hold on their zakat date, against the nisab of 18 June 2026 (2 295 000 DA). The amounts are examples.

Household A saved steadily but stays below the nisab, so nothing is due on this calculation, although the same 1 370 000 DA was above the 2024 nisab (1 105 000 DA). For household B, the gold (20 g at 27 000 DA) is what takes it over the line. Household C pays 4 000 000 ÷ 40 = 100 000 DA.

Zakat on monthly savings that go up and down

Savings from a salary rarely sit still: they grow each month, drop for the Aïd sheep , the rentrée or a wedding, then start again. Counting a separate year for every monthly deposit would be impossible to keep up.

The simple practice many households follow is the fixed date. Once their savings have reached the nisab, they count everything they hold on the same date each year, the last months of salary included, and pay 2.5% if the total is still at or above the nisab. If it has fallen below, nothing is due on that count.

Scholars answer some cases in more detail: savings that dipped below the nisab during the year, a large sum received just before your date, money others owe you. For your situation, ask the imam of your mosque or the ministry’s online fatwa service .

Where to give zakat in Algeria

Many people give their zakat directly to relatives or neighbours in need. The ministry also runs the Zakat Fund (Sandouq ez-Zakat), a religious and social institution whose committees, in each daïra and each wilaya, decide who receives it. The ministry lists these ways to pay in.

• A postal order at any post office, to the Zakat Fund account of your wilaya.
• A cheque paid in at the post office, to the same account.
• The zakat box of your mosque, where the imam gives you a receipt.
• An electronic transfer with BaridiMob, which the ministry pointed to in 2024.

The wilaya accounts belong to the National Office of Wakfs and Zakat.

Doing it with Jibi

• Your cash, your Edahabia card and your CIB account each keep their own balance: on your zakat date, you read a few totals instead of hunting for receipts.
• Savings in euros or dollars go in a foreign-currency wallet, at the rate you choose, so you see their value in dinars.
• A savings goal for the zakat, with your payment month as the target, spreads it over the year: 63 500 DA over twelve months is about 5 300 DA a month.
• The debts and installments you note are all in one place when your date comes.
• Jibi doesn’t calculate zakat or give religious opinions, and never connects to your bank or Algérie Poste.

To build the savings first, see how to save on an Algerian salary , and find more on the Jibi blog .