The International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) aims to contribute RM250,000 to its Endowment Fund (IEF) in the first year of the university's credit card usage that was launched, Wednesday.

IIUM rector Prof Datuk Dr Zaleha Kamaruddin said the credit card was launched in collaboration with AmBank Islamic to enable the cardholders to spend while contributing directly to IEF.

"From 2008, we (IIUM) had begun the initiative to seek the best and convenient way for the public, especially the university's alumni to contribute to IEF to help needy students.

"IIUM is the first public university to have its own credit card," she said after launching the IIUM credit card and the 'JomPAY' campaign at the IIUM Gombak campus here Wednesday.

Zaleha said for the introductory year of the IIUM credit card, 5,000 people were expected to register, especially IIUM staff and alumni.

"For each 3,000 points collected from the usage of the credit card, it will be changed to RM10 and donated to IEF," she added.

Meanwhile, AmBank Group group CEO Datuk Sulaiman Mohd Tahir said the collaboration was forged as a sign of support for the growth of the country' s education sector.

"We are pleased to embark on another initiative to offer more products to our customers while helping to raise funds for the IEF which will be used to assist needy IIUM students in their studies.

"Sometimes, people do not redeem their credit cards points, but with the IIUM credit cards, the points are put to good use. We (AmBank and IIUM), have also teamed up with JomPAY to provide added convenience accessibility and flexibility," he said.

The ' JomPAY' electronic payment service enabled the public and corporate sector to make contributions to the IEF via the internet, mobile banking and automated teller machines, he added.

According to records, in 2016, since the fund was established in 1999, IEF had contributed RM10.5 million as financial aid to 4,323 IIUM students through numerous aid programmes.

-- BERNAMA