Zakah is an important tool in Islamic economic system, it plays a crucial role in reducing some social and economic problems such as poverty, unemployment, indebtedness and inequitable redistribution of income in the Muslim communities. The Zakah institutions in Gombe metropolis are said to practice favouritism and unfair service quality and distribution of Zakah funds among recipients. The main objective of this study is to empirically examine perception of the Zakah recipients towards the services provided by the institutions. This study adopted descriptive survey design approach. PLS-SEM is employed to test the hypothesized model of the study. The result reveals that reliability, responsiveness and assurance significantly affect performance of Zakah institutions but tangibility and empathy were found to be insignificant. The study recommends the need for Zakah institutions in Gombe metropolis to consider improving the tangibles and empathy dimensions of service quality. The study also recommends the need to concentrate on the antecedents of service quality as it will assist Zakah institutions to improve performance. Lastly, the study suggests the establishment of Zakah board that will serve as regulatory body in charge of supervising the activities of private  Zakah institutions in Gombe state.

Objective – Islamic banking has emerged as a robust and sound banking system across the globe. Despite its increasing popularity, there is a dearth of awareness in both Muslim and Non-Muslim countries which slows the pace of development of the system. This paper, there-fore, reviews critically some empirical studies on awareness and perception of Islamic bank-ing products and services.Design/methodology – The research involves review and synthesis of prior studies on customers’ awareness and perception of Islamic baking.Results – The result of the review reveals that good awareness and perception of the public on Islamic banking products and services are critical to the development of Islamic banking and finance. The study concludes that significant progress has been made in Muslim and Non-Muslim countries with the potentials to dominate conventional banking shortly in some jurisdictions.Limitation/Suggestion – Thus, the study recommends that operators and regulators of Islamic banks need to pay due attention to public awareness and perception with a view to enhancing patronage of the Islamic banking products and services and enabling the sector to effectively compete with its already well-established conventional counterpart.