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By RASHID HASSAN
RIYADH: Saudi banks have helped facilitate funds exceeding SR17 billion to more than 8,500 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) under the Kafala program.
The program aims to promote financial support for Saudi SMEs, said Talat Zaki Hafiz, secretary-general of the media and banking awareness committee at Saudi Banks.
Hafiz was addressing a press conference in Riyadh on Tuesday, He added: "The eighth Kafala awareness campaign, which aims to shed light on the Kafala program, a collaboration between the Ministry of Finance represented by the Saudi Industrial Development Fund (SIDF) and Saudi banks to promote financing to the SMEs."
As we know SMEs face challenges and one of these challenges is to get financial support from banks. To address this issue, the Kafala program was created to support SMEs, he said, adding that it is a very successful program.
"Started in 2006 with financing to the tune of 22 million in total, it has benefited 36 SMEs then but today if you look at the numbers, it has multiplied manifold. Today, the amount of financing provided by Saudi banks exceeds SR17 billion and there are more than 8,500 SMEs benefiting from the program."
This tells the success story of the program in the last 10 years, he said, adding that the Kafala program has done extremely well over a decade.
Speaking to Arab News later, he said the bank has been offering credit facilities through this program. It also issues a guarantee to the bank.
“We are here to increase awareness among SMEs about the program and to provide more information about the process. The SMEs should go through this process to obtain the guarantees required to receive support from the banks.
Responding to a question, he said: “It is not just the finances and guarantees; the program provides training as well to SMEs in collaboration with some of the very respectable and esteemed organizations in the world. It has provided more than 56 training programs so far.”
Saudi banks also organized special programs and educational tours to support the initiative, he added.
He added: “We have chosen ‘the future is ours’ as the slogan this year to indicate clearly that the future is really for the youth.”
Hafiz said: “The future belongs to the young people in Saudi society as we are aware that more than 60 percent of the population is under the age of 30.
“This is why we say the future is ours and this program is also to support young men and women for entrepreneurship and innovation. This is also the key part of the Saudi Vision 2030.”
The program aims to empower young Saudis who wish to expand their small enterprises into medium-sized businesses or to further expand them into a large-scale industry, he added.
Osama Al-Mubarak of the Kafala program explained the various financing mechanisms and regulations and also stressed the importance of training, knowledge and qualification for young businessmen.
The Kafala program aims to raise the SMEs’ contribution in the GDP of the Kingdom from 20 percent to 35 percent.
© Arab News 2016
