The cabinet will decide on the per-share price of the transaction, the decree said. The amount will be paid via the issuance of five sukuks.

Vakifbank, the seventh-largest lender in Turkey by asset value, posted a net profit of 700.7 million lira ($184 million) in the third quarter, down 14 percent from a year earlier, according to its latest financial statements.

The stake would be worth around $2.4 billion, given Vakifbank's current trading price, according to Thomson Reuters data.

In May, unlisted Islamic lender Vakif Katilim's chairman, Ozturk Oran, told Reuters the government was considering transfering a 58.5 percent stake in Vakifbank to the Treasury and using the proceeds to strengthen his bank's capital as part of Ankara's push to promote Islamic finance.