Muscat – The Authority for Small and Medium Enterprises Development (ASMED), in cooperation with Oman Development Bank (ODB), on Tuesday shed light on strategic directions for developing small and medium enterprises, the Jahiziah programme, other financing programmes, and the role of ODB in managing lending portfolios and receiving funding requests.
Abdulaziz bin Saeed al Raisi, vice president of ASMED, pointed out that this meeting comes after His Majesty Sultan Haitham bin Tarik’s recent emphasis on the vital role of small and medium enterprises, and the entrepreneurship sector, in supporting the national economy.
“The Authority for Small and Medium Enterprises Development conducted a study to monitor the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on small and medium enterprises last year. The study identified many measures to support owners of small and medium enterprises,” Raisi disclosed.
He further explained, “Despite the challenges faced by SMEs, the number of new enterprises registered with the authority increased to about 10,000 in 2021. We started displaying the products of SMEs in large shopping centres to develop Omani products in ways that are attractive to the consumer. The authority will also display these products on international platforms, and a tender has been launched for this purpose.”
The total number of SMEs registered with the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Investment Promotion has reached 175,000 at the end of October 202, he said.
According to Raisi, the number of Omanis working in SMEs, who registered with the authority until December 2021, has reached 69,594, and the contributions of SMEs in exports until the end of September 2020 had amounted to around RO2.15mn.
“The authority is working on developing small and medium enterprises during this year and launching many things, such as incubating about 50 new institutions, launching 60 new Sanad service centres, adding about 40 new services, and launching seven new financing programmes,” he said, adding, “We launched the second phase of the Jahiziah programme today which will last for two weeks. The second phase aims to incubate150 SMEs to support them to obtain financing.”
He also disclosed that 619 projects benefited from the emergency financing programme. These comprised institutions that were the most affected in 2021.
Aboud bin Amer al Omari, vice president of the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority for Finance and Investment, and director general of Planning, said, “The ceiling for financing individuals and small and medium-sized enterprises is RO250,000, with the possibility of additional financing for existing projects that are committed to paying the installments.
Hamad bin Salem al Harthy, chairman of Finance for Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises and Portfolio Management at the Oman Development Bank, said, “The lending portfolio of the authority managed by the Bank amounted to about RO73mn which was pumped into all SME projects during the last period.” He also indicated that the default rate in the lending portfolio of ASMED amounted to approximately eight per cent.
Meanwhile, in May 2021, with a financing ceiling of RO10,000, ASMED had launched the emergency financing programme for ‘Entrepreneur Card’ holders in implementation of the high level directives to adopt the Social Protection Initiatives Package, a statement said. This was to enhance the activity and sustainability of small and medium enterprises in all sectors, as well as economic activities affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, it added.
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