The Small and Medium Enterprises General Authority (Monsha’at) partnered with the University of Business and Technology (UBT) in Jeddah to certify accredited small and medium enterprise consultants in line with Vision 2030.
Organized by UBT Continuing Education Center (CEC), and delivered by Dr. Richard Weinberger, CEO of the Association of Accredited Small Business Consultants (AASBC) based in the US, the four-day program included 25 delegates from the cities of Riyadh, Jeddah, Dammam, Madinah, Yanbu and Jazan.
The professional training program covered 15 themes. They were small business and SME today; general financial statement review; revenue and expense review; asset and liability review; ratio analysis, SWOT analysis; operations management; strategic planning; budgets and forecasts; internal controls; marketing and branding; business organizations; financing; risk assessment and fraud deterrence; and marketing consulting practice.
In addition to the membership benefits of AASBC, the delegates who passed the online certification exam with success the certification exam online were awarded the title Accredited SME Consultant.
UBT CEC Director Dr. Amir Dhia said that the program, which was subsidized by Monsha’at, included a rich and diverse group of practitioners from the sectors of banking, finance, entrepreneurs, CEOs, and business consultants.
Small and medium enterprises contribute only 20 percent to the GDP in the Kingdom compared to 70 percent of some economies. Despite the efforts to improve the quality of the business environment, small enterprises in the Kingdom continue to suffer from a complexity of regulatory and administrative procedures, slow capacity, poor capacity to attract talents, and difficulty in obtaining funding. The proportion of funding for small and medium enterprises is only five percent of the total funding, which is a small proportion compared to global rates.
The Monsha’at aims to develop, enable, and advocate for SMEs to thrive, in collaboration with strategic partners in the public, private and non-profit sectors.
