RIYADH: Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah has ordered SR10 billion to be deposited in the Saudi Credit Bank for use in interest-free loans for low-income Saudis to marry their sons and daughters and, among others, repair their homes.
“Hundreds of thousands of poor people will benefit from the king’s order,” Finance Minister Ibrahim Al-Assaf said in a statement to the Saudi Press Agency.
He added that citizens whose monthly income does not exceed SR7,000 are eligible for loans between SR5,000 and SR45,000. In the first nine months of the year, the bank handed out 180,000 loans amounting to SR4.3 billion. Seventy-six percent of the loans are returned.
The new order is in addition to the bank’s current scheme of distributing interest-free loans to the underprivileged people, especially widows and divorced women. The maximum income for beneficiaries has been raised to SR7,000; it was fixed at SR5,000 in the Makkah region. A widow should be 25 years old, but the age restriction can be waived if she is supporting children. A man would be eligible for a marriage loan of SR30,000 as long as his marriage contract was signed no more than two years ago.
