Ambitious national programs to support small businesses in the Kingdom
Riyadh-Amlak
The Saudi Credit and Savings Bank intends to launch national programs to support productive individuals, most notably the «Professional House» to take care of productive families and microenterprises, in cooperation with several government, commercial and charitable entities to exchange experiences and provide financial support.

Professional House

<For his part, the Director of the Saudi Credit and Savings Bank (SCSB), Dr. Ibrahim Al-Hanishal, confirmed that the «Professional House» program aims to motivate productive individuals financially and consultatively and support their projects with marketing and production, among several projects to be launched during the year.
In the same context, Executive Director of Jana Center Mahmoud Al-Shami confirmed that the repayment rate of Saudi businesswomen benefiting from the center's support reached 100 percent, stressing that the profits of their projects amounted to three times the original amount provided to them, with total profits reaching 91 million riyals.
The Saudi Credit and Savings Bank also recently signed a joint cooperation agreement with the Center for Building Productive Families «Jana» of the Sulaiman bin Abdulaziz Al Rajhi Charitable Foundation to support, sponsor and finance productive families and micro projects, whose investment cost does not exceed 50 thousand riyals, similar to the accreditation of sponsors of the small and emerging enterprises sector, the Saudi Credit and Savings Bank developed a regulation to accredit sponsors of productive families and micro projects.

Dr. Ibrahim Al Hanishel, Director General of the Bank, pointed out that this agreement will contribute to raising the quality and quality of productive families and micro projects, noting that the Bank is aware of the importance of these projects and what they represent for their owners and the national economy.

”Small and micro lending has become an urgent need and a necessity imposed by the economic and social conditions in the Kingdom, so the existence of financing programs for this type of projects within the general development strategy was one of the most important necessities.” He pointed out that this type of projects effectively contributes to reducing the phenomenon of poverty and unemployment, provides job opportunities for their owners and their family members, and contributes to encouraging the consumption of national products and achieving self-sufficiency for some consumer goods.
Productive families
Dr. Ibrahim Al Hanishel said: «Our agreement with Jana Center will certainly contribute to achieving the aspirations of those who have the skill and determination to practice self-employment in microenterprises, productive families projects, handicrafts and crafts, and will also help develop their technical and commercial skills and create more opportunities and wider spaces for those who wish to own their own project.»

He added: «The Saudi Credit and Savings Bank, as part of its endeavors to promote the qualitative and technical level of the small, emerging and microenterprise sector, is keen to search for the best leading entities in the field of sponsoring the sector and ensure the application of the best practices and standards in these entities, which reflects positively on the projects financed by the bank by adopting them as its executive arms and ensuring their effective contribution to the development of the national economy.» He added: »The Sulaiman Al Rajhi Foundation has quality programs such as the Productive Families Building Center (Jana) program, which is considered one of the successful local experiences that can be developed in the field of consolidating the culture of self-employment and providing self-employment opportunities to reduce unemployment by providing multiple services, including micro-lending and sponsorship, the bank accredited the center as an executive arm for microenterprises to provide non-financial services, and under this agreement, a portfolio of 36.Under this agreement, a portfolio of SAR 36,000,000 has been allocated to finance productive families and microenterprises.
The Director General of the Credit Bank added: »We are heading towards a prosperous economic development that will be built by the people of this country.» He stressed that the Bank's policy of supporting the small, emerging and microenterprise sector will not stop there, but will strive to push the organization of the sector to achieve what is hoped from it and be a real and qualitative addition to the national economy.“
For his part, Executive Director of Jana Center Mahmoud Al Shami explained that the cooperation agreement will achieve the objectives of both parties in developing productive family projects, raising the level of production for women working in the center's projects and providing professional employment opportunities for women in all regions of the Kingdom in which Jana operates. He added that Jana has so far provided more than 24 thousand job opportunities, and seeks during the current year to provide 9500 self-employment opportunities for women in Khobar, Dammam, Al-Ahsa, Al-Qassim, Hail, Jazan, Arar and Al-Jouf, in addition to two branches that will be opened in the coming months, adding that the agreement will enable women with production tools to achieve the overall goal of the project in empowering women in society economically and socially through the center's branches throughout the Kingdom.

Community service
He added that ”Jana« is one of the community service programs of the Sulaiman bin Abdulaziz Al Rajhi Charitable Foundation, which adopts the support and financing of microenterprises and focuses on the category of women, and focuses on qualitative projects that bring added value to women in the community and help support the national economy and localization of jobs by providing self-employment opportunities for women.
It is noteworthy that this agreement will contribute to financing and sponsoring more than (2000) projects, and that this agreement comes within a number of agreements that the Bank has concluded with a number of sponsors, believing in the principle of joint cooperation between the sectors working in the small, emerging and micro enterprises sector.
The agreement was signed by the Bank's General Manager, Dr. Ibrahim bin Abdulaziz Al Hanishal, and the Secretary General of the Sulaiman Al Rajhi Charity Foundation, Abdulrahman bin Abdullah Al Rajhi. The Jana Center was established in the second half of the year 1431 AH, as one of the qualitative programs of the Sulaiman bin Abdulaziz Al Rajhi Charitable Foundation to form the nucleus of the development work that the Foundation seeks to adopt in the future as one of the foundations of sustainable social work that serves the largest segment of society.