The Business Growth Forum hosted by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Makkah recently, with the participation of the National Bank and the Kafala program in the Saudi Development Fund, revealed that the Kafala program jumped to achieve 3600 guarantees, with funding from local banks exceeding 12 billion riyals, benefiting 6000 establishments, in the past year.

Osama bin Abdulrahman Al Mubarak, head of the Kafalah program, presented a briefing for SME owners to familiarize themselves with the steps to achieve secure financing to reap the fruits of the success of their projects.

Mubarak stressed the importance of the Kafalah program. Al Mubarak stressed the importance of training, knowledge and qualification, without burdens and at minimal costs, to know the secrets of success for any project accepted by young businessmen, and revealed that the Kafala program, which was launched in 2006, provided 51 sponsorships in its first year with funding amounting to 20 million riyals, and witnessed obstacles that limited the success of its mission.

The deputy head of the Department of Kafalah pointed out that the program was launched in the beginning. <The conditions for benefiting from the Kafalah program are limited to the establishment having a legal entity «an individual enterprise - a solidarity company - a limited liability company - a simple recommendation company», with no negative remarks on previous dealings with the bank or other banks, completing all legal and statutory aspects of the activity, using the funding for the purpose allocated to it in accordance with the conditions that must be observed in the activity, and that the establishment is economically, financially, technically and administratively feasible and contributes positively to the Saudi economy in terms of employment and training of Saudi citizens and replacing the existing ones.