SR12 billion program launched to support Saudi economy

The Saudi Social Development Bank, with the support of the National Development Fund, has launched a program to support owners of small and emerging enterprises in promising and priority sectors, as well as low-income families, the Saudi Press Agency reported.

It is doing so by allocating an additional budget of SR12 billion ($3.19 billion) to help mitigate the expected financial and economic impacts of the fight against coronavirus.

The program includes five tracks. In the first, SR4 billion was added to the budget allocated to support low-income families in 2020.

In the second track, SR2 billion was added to the budget allocated to support micro and small enterprises, in which 6,000 entrepreneurs will be funded and enabled to launch their development projects.

In the third, SR2 billion was allocated to support 1,000 small and medium health facilities. In the fourth track, SR2 billion was provided to help finance 50,000 small local facilities throughout the Kingdom.

The bank has also extended the deadline for all projects that were financed in 2019 and 2020 by six months, as it believes in the important role of entrepreneurs who have not been able to launch their projects yet, and thus has allocated SR2 billion for all deferred payments.