The number of guarantees granted to small and medium-sized enterprises in the region through the ”Kafala” program ” program since its inception in 2006 until the end of the first quarter of 2014 reached 231 guarantees, worth 117 million riyals, benefiting 124 enterprises with a total financing value of 238 million riyals.
This was revealed at a seminar held by the Youth Business Committee of the Qassim Chamber of Commerce, where Abdulrahman bin Abdullah Al-Khudair, Deputy Secretary-General of the Qassim Chamber of Commerce, explained during the seminar, held recently at the Chamber’s main headquarters in Buraidah, that the Kafalah program represents a model example of successful initiatives that embody the true meaning of partnership between the public and private sectors to achieve comprehensive and sustainable development, noting that the seminar aimed to raise awareness among young businesspeople about the financing solutions these programs offer to owners of small and medium-sized enterprises, a sector that constitutes a significant portion of the local market and the national economy.
For his part, Abdullah Al-Khalaf, Head of the Credit Team at the Saudi Industrial Development Fund, noted that small and medium-sized enterprises account for approximately 905 of the total number of sectors operating in the Kingdom, account for 80% of the local labor force, and contribute approximately 30% of the total GDP, noting that the number of guarantees provided by the program across all regions of the Kingdom reached 7,932 guarantees for 4,371 enterprises, with a financing value exceeding 3.9 billion riyals, and that the construction sector ranked first with 185 guarantees, followed by the trade, services, tourism, transportation, storage, and refrigeration sectors