SDB to support fintech entrepreneurs and SMEs with SAR 24B
Social Development Bank (SDB) has underlined its commitment to enhancing entrepreneurship in Saudi Arabia by allocating SAR 24 billion to finance entrepreneurs and small and emerging enterprises during the next three years.
Saudi Arabia's Social Development Bank (SDB) has committed to increasing entrepreneurship in the region, and has allocated SAR 24 billion ($6.4 billion) to finance entrepreneurs and SMEs in the next three years.
The announcement was made at Biban 2023, a five-day conference being organised by Mon'shat, Saudi Arabia's Ministry for Small and Medium Enterprises.
According to a note shared by the bank, the idea is to empower entrepreneurs and support them to have an effective and influential role, and enhance the role of small and emerging enterprises in the Saudi economy.
“This allocation will be crucial to providing more citizens access to self-employment and sustainable success," Ibrahim Al-Rashid, CEO, Social Development Bank said. "SDB’s strategy is geared towards raising economic productivity. The bank has set out to achieve this by providing access to programmes and products to support small and emerging enterprises, develop services, offer financing alternatives in line with targeted sectors’ needs and encourage economic activity.”
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He added the bank's role is to monitor social and economic development in the Kingdom. This also includes various initiatives to provide consulting, training, and guidance programmes by the Dulani Center, in addition to Jaadah30, which provides business incubators and accelerators to empower SMEs.
SDB says funding provided by the bank to local SMEs in 2022 reached SAR 5 billion, with 9,000 entities benefiting from its financing services. The bank has also signed 11 agreements with different stakeholders. The aim is to develop and support SMEs as one of the most important streams of the economic and social development process.
Additionally, six financing contracts were signed for entrepreneurs to drive economic growth.
The BIBAN23 forum saw the participation of over 120 entities. Crucially, the gathering is in line with the goals of Vision 2030 and the Kingdom’s long-term objective of raising SMEs’ contribution to the nation’s GDP to 35%.
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Edited by Kanishk Singh