Signed CEO and Board Member of SME Loan Guarantee Program (Kafalah), Homam Hashem, seven memorandums of understanding, aiming at the Kingdom's being a fertile environment for growth in support of SMEs by facilitating financing through innovative and modern financial technology ( Fintech and Crowdfunding Platforms ) that go hand in hand with one of the key objectives of Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 to develop the Financial sector and enhance the attractiveness of the investment climate.
This follows the positive growth since the start of the licensing of the Fintech sector and the Crowdfunding of investments in this sector worth SAR 12.2 billion to support the lending of MSMEs, which stimulates support for the Financial Technology sector and Crowdfunding. The SME Guarantee Program has therefore held several memorandums of understanding with: Tameed Platform, Lammeh Platform, Lendo Platform, Hala Platform, Mulkiat Platform, Raqamyah Platform.
These agreements contribute to increasing financing opportunities for SMEs by expanding strategic partnerships with finance companies in the Financial Technology and Crowdfunding sector and operationalizing the 3.0 guarantee product, which allows financial institutions to obtain guarantees for the SME segment to automatically obtain sponsorship without human intervention. The total value of the agreements is 300 million riyals.
Signing agreements coincides with SME Bank Launch of its new funding program ( Proxy Financing ) in the presence of His Excellency the Board Chairman of the SME Bank, Mr. Yousef Al-Benyan, His Excellency Dr. Khalid Al-Dhaher, Deputy Governor of the Saudi Central Bank, President of the SME Bank and Board Chairman of the Kafalah Program Abdulrahman bin Mohammed bin Mansour, Deputy Governor of Enterprises Sulaiman Al-Turaif, President of SVC His Excellency Mr. Nabil Koshak, and many official from the public and private sectors.
The SME Loan Guarantee Program ( Kafalah ) seeks to support MSMEs financial guarantees to enhance enterprises access to financing through strategic partnerships and innovative technical tools supported by the program's knowledge bases. This agreement is one of the steps of integration with SME Bank that will support the expansion of SME financing.