<The Kafalah program revealed that the financing provided by banks and banks participating in the program amounted to 714 million riyals in the first quarter of this year compared to 572 million riyals during the same period of the previous year, an increase of 25%.. Osama bin Abdulrahman Al Mubarak, Acting Head of the program, indicated that the program witnessed steady growth during the first quarter of the current year 2015, as the program administration approved 690 sponsorships until the end of the first quarter of this year compared to 652 sponsorships approved during the same period of the previous year, with a growth rate of 6%, with a total value of 353 million riyals compared to 312 million riyals during the same period of the previous year, an increase of 13%,

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According to the program's statistics, the National Commercial Bank, Riyad Bank, Al Rajhi Bank and Arab National Bank are the most banks that contributed to financing the SME sector in that period under the program, in terms of the value and number of guarantees issued.

According to Al Mubarak, the construction sector was the most benefited economic sector with 61%, followed by the trade sector with 13%, the financial and business services sector with 12%, the industry sector with 7%, while other sectors accounted for 7% of the total number of approved guarantees for economic sectors.

Al Mubarak attributed the steady rise in the number of approved sponsorships and the escalation of their financing value to the program's motivational and encouraging benefits that increased the demand of business owners to benefit from them to expand their business base, as well as the constructive cooperation between the program and banks, which contributed to supporting the sector significantly.