Engineer Osama bin Abdulrahman Al-Mubarak, Director General of the Small and Medium Enterprises Financing Guarantee Program, revealed that the value of financing provided by banks participating in the program reached 1,770 million riyals, compared to 1,649 million riyals during the same period of the previous year.
During the first half of the fiscal year 1437/1438 AH (2016 CE), the program’s management issued 1,697 guarantees, compared to 1,711 guarantees issued during the same period of the previous year. The total value of the guarantees amounted to (911) million riyals, compared to (834) million riyals during the same period of the previous year, representing an increase of (9%), which helped provide financing to 838 small and medium-sized enterprises, compared to 754 enterprises during the same period of the previous year, representing an 11% growth rate.
Al-Ahli Commercial Bank, Riyad Bank, and Al-Rajhi Bank led the banks that contributed to financing the small and medium-sized enterprise sector during that period under the program’s umbrella, in terms of both the number and value of guarantees issued.
The construction sector—which includes several subsectors such as construction works, maintenance, operations, and specialized subcontracting—was the economic sector that benefited most from the program, accounting for 43% of the total number of guarantees, followed in importance by the trade sector at 29%, then the financial, business, and other services sector at 9%, while the remaining sectors accounted for 19% of the total number of guarantees approved during the first half of 2016.
Al-Mubarak noted that the growing number of program beneficiaries who have experienced its success in expanding their activities is an indicator of the extent of the efforts made to encourage small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) owners to take advantage of the financing opportunities offered by the program, which have contributed to establishing a culture ofentrepreneurial and financial culture among many small and medium-sized enterprise owners. He emphasized that intensive efforts are being made to overcome the obstacles preventing business owners from accessing financing, as well as to encourage banks partnering with the program to increase lending to small and medium-sized enterprises and to adopt new initiatives that meet the sector’s needs and requirements, in line with the Kingdom’s Vision 2030.
It is worth noting that from the program’s launch in the fiscal year 1426/1427 AH (2006 CE) through the end of the first half of the fiscal year 1437/1438 AH, (2016 CE), the program’s administration approved a total of (16,596) guarantees, benefiting (8,060) small and medium-sized enterprises, with a total value of (8) billion riyals in guarantees against approved financing totaling (16) billion riyals.
