The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (SMEDA) has announced that it has approved 127 financing requests totaling RO 11,295,231 in value in the first half of 2023.
According to a recent report published by the Authority, the requests were distributed across four financing programmes: Industrial and Service Projects programme (76 requests covering RO 7.4 million in funding); Contracts programme (31 requests amounting to RO 2.7 million in funding; Working Capital and Fixed Assets programme: 19 requests of a total of RO 1 million in funding; and Incubated Enterprises and Business Accelerators programme (1 request of a funding value of RO 70,000).
The financing programmes are part of a series of programmes launched in collaboration with Oman Development Bank to support SMEs.
Other programmes include: Local Value Added programme , the Craftsmanship and Home-Based Business Products Financing, Productivity, Street Vendors, and Mobile Business Activities Financing programmes, and the Financing for Small and Medium Enterprises Holding Contracts from Omani Investment Authority Companies.
Furthermore, the data indicates that the total number of registered small and medium enterprises (SMEs) within the authority reached 104,574 by the end of June 2023. The majority of which are micro enterprises (89, 558), followed by (14, 006) small enterprises and (1,010) medium enterprises.
According to the data, these SMEs employ 79,326 Omani nationals.
Additionally, the Authority reported that incubated enterprises under its incubation programmes generated a total revenue of RO 1,205,578 in the first half of this year.
Earlier this year, the Authority launched a free of charge online entrepreneurship academy with the aim of promoting SMEs.
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