The volume of financing provided by the participating banks in the Kafala Program stood at SR1.14 billion during the first half of the current year compared to SR882 million of the same period last year, an increase of 29 percent, Osama bin Abdulrahman Al-Mubarak, chairman of the program, announced.
He said the Kafala Program issued 1,198 guarantees for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the first half of the year compared to 835 guarantees last year, an increase of 43 percent.
The value of guarantees in the two comparing periods stood at SR635.3 million and SR470.2 million respectively, or increase of 35 percent, he said.
The National Commercial Bank (NCB) ranked the top of supporting banks to the Kafala Program during the first half at 41 percent of the total guarantees, followed by Riyad Bank (18 percent), Arab National Bank, ARB, (11 percent), Bank AlJazira (9 percent) and other banks (21 percent).
The construction and building sector captured the biggest portion of the approved guarantees at the rate of 57 percent, followed by the commercial sector (14 percent), the industrial sector (10 percent), the finance and business (7 percent), and other sectors (12 percent), he said.
Kafala Program is a joint effort of the Ministry of Finance, represented by the Saudi Industrial Development Fund (SIDF), and Saudi banks. The program aims to promote financing to the SME sector in the Kingdom. Through the program, the banks offer finance to customers up to SR2 million whereas Kafala Program will issue guarantee to the bank, covering up to 80 percent of the required financing.
Saudi banks inject SR1.14bn to Kafala-supported SME projects
