RIYADH, 15 April 2007 — The Centennial Fund (TCF) has unveiled an ambitious program of transforming 365 Saudi nationals into businessmen and businesswomen this year or one entrepreneur a day.
Hesham Tashkandi, general manager of The Centennial Fund (TCF), said that out of the 365, 30 percent of the projects would be allocated to women-related enterprises.
The eighth five-year development plan (2005-2009) aims to improve the situation of Saudi women by providing them with more business and job opportunities. Tashkandi said TCF not only achieved but also exceeded last year’s target when it funded 130 women-related business projects as against the target of 100, a 29 percent increase from the initial target of 10 percent.
TCF, he said, helps young Saudi entrepreneurs outside the main cities of Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam.
Last year, 57 percent of their projects were located outside the three big cities. This year, 58 percent of the projects have been funded outside this region, while the target is to reach 70 percent during the year. “We believe that the real need lies in smaller cities and villages.”
Munira A. Alghamdi, assistant general manager for Female Operations, said some of beneficiaries of the fund have set up tailoring shops, libraries for women, sporting facilities for children, lingerie shops, shops for women’s clothes and gift wrapping, daycare centers, Internet cafes, confectioneries, etc. In addition to the loans, mentors give them technical and emotional support.
The CEO said the fund is different from Grameen Bank of Bangladesh since the latter provides micro credits to its customers. TCF advances loans without guarantees or collateral in the range of SR50,000-SR200,000, with the average loan size amounting to SR161,000 — repayable within five years.
For this reason, TCF, as a charitable organization, has received ISO 9001 certification, the only one of its kind to be ISO-certified for helping young people start their business ventures.
Tashkandi moreover said that some prominent people in the Kingdom work for TCF in a private capacity. The list includes Prince Abdulaziz ibn Abdullah, adviser to Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, and chairman of the board of trustees of TCF, Amr Abdullah Dabbagh, governor of SAGIA, Dr. Muhammed Al-Jasser, deputy governor of the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA), and Dr. Ahmed Mohammed Ali, president of the Islamic Development Bank.
Tashkandi said TCF is a member of the Youth Business International (YBI) belonging to the Prince of Wales Foundation. The Kingdom is the first country in the GCC to adopt this program which is in more than 40 countries around the world.
The fund suits local needs. As the general manager said: “Most of the YBI programs around the world charge 10 to 20 percent on loans to the entrepreneurs. We provide interest-free loans. Similarly, there is no cross-gender mentoring in our program. Thus mentoring services for women are provided by women only.”
The second service that we provide is mentoring, the most important for the success of an enterprise. In fact, the loan component represents only 30 percent of the value of services provided, while 70 percent is the value of the mentoring services that we provide.”
Tashkandi said that mentoring basically involves interaction between a veteran in the field and the prospective entrepreneurs. The mentor acts as an elder brother or sister in helping the young entrepreneur develop the ability to make correct business decisions.
The third service that TCF provides is that of facilitation through the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA). It acts as a one-stop shop in helping the young entrepreneur comply with all the business formalities.