Daijiworld Media Network - Dammam (SR)
Dammam, Apr 6: Saudi’s Small and Medium Enterprises General Authority (Monsha’at) launched a funding portal for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), an initiative that is set to transform the face of startups and other SMEs. It is aimed at helping entrepreneurs to access business funding to apply for monetary backing through a newly established website.
According to various sources, 720 young entrepreneurs took part in the Biban Eastern Forum for (SMEs), being organised by Monsha’at at the Dhahran International Exhibition Center in collaboration with the National Entrepreneurship Institute (Riyadah).
The event runs until April 6 with the aim of supporting and developing the SMEs sector. Delegates were able to participate in more than 60 specialized training courses, lectures, workshops and interactive sessions.
The new portal initiative will provide lenders to tap in to funding channels by making their lending more judicious and less risk-based. Such a system will also remove the information hierarchy between large corporates and SME lenders by bidding for online offers from financial providers.
Though this is the latest scheme to help SMEs in the kingdom by Monsha’, the authority had previously set up a SR 1.6 billion ($416 million) initiative to provide credits to businesses through the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA), in addition to establish a SR 2.8 billion ($728 million) fund to invest in SMEs.
The forum is also offering 36 training courses in subject areas such as supply chains, human resources management, basic app programming, marketing, accounting, strategic planning, commercial franchises and branding, it also includes other specialised courses dedicated to e-commerce and included e-stores, business models and e-ideas.
Several other workshops were held offering guidance and information in areas such as industrial empowerment, risk management, micro-enterprise management, financial technology, bank financing, exports, smart leadership apps, entrepreneurship, data analysis and human resources management of new projects.