Oman's Inma provided $52M in funding to SMEs in 2022
The funds would help the growth of small and medium enterprises in the region and increase their contribution to the country's GDP.
Oman's Small and Medium Enterprises Development Fund (Inma) provided funding worth $52.13 million (20 million Omani riyals) to 144 small and medium enterprises in 2022, according to a report published in the state-owned Oman News Agency.
The funding would help SMEs grow and increase their contribution to the country's gross domestic product (GDP).
Among the funded SMEs, 123 projects worth $41 million were funded through Inma's headquarters in Muscat. Nine other projects, each worth around $23 million were funded by the fund's office at Sohar. Another set of nine projects was funded with $2.6 million each.
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Saleh Hilal Al Ma’awal, the CEO of Inma, said that the fund had recently decided to extend the loan payment duration to eight years in order to further boost the morale of SMEs in the country.
Established in 2014, Inma aims to create a platform for boosting entrepreneurship and SMEs in Oman by collaborating with the government, academia, private stakeholders and the youth.
According to National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI), Oman, the number of SMEs in the country clocked 81,000 at the end of July 2022. The report by NCSI highlighted the youth of the country's growing interest to establish their own projects, especially as economic activities picked up post the pandemic. Various banks and government department have also increased their financing to the sector.
Edited by Affirunisa Kankudti