Al Rafd Fund issues 2,563 loans worth OMR99mn

Muscat: The Board of Directors of Al-Rafd Fund held via videoconferencing its second meeting for the year 2020 under the chairmanship of Dr Ali bin Masoud Al Sunaidi, Minister of Commerce and Industry as well as Chairman of the Fund’s Board of Directors.
The meeting reviewed activities of the Al Rafd Fund until the end of April 2020. The Fund financed 2,563 loans worth more than OMR99 million since the beginning of the fund’s work in all governorates of the Sultanate. This included various economic sectors, providing 4,229 direct job opportunities for Omani youth, 64.7 per cent of them went for males and 35.3 per cent for females. The payment rate reached 83.9 per cent of the value of loans disbursed.
The meeting reviewed the initiatives that the Al Rafd Fund has worked on to mitigate the impacts of the (Coved-19) pandemic on projects funded by it.
The Fund has directly followed the challenges facing businessmen in light of the Covid-19 outbreak and the measures taken to ensure the safety of all. It developed the appropriate plans and solutions to address those challenges, in addition to implementing a number of initiatives that would alleviate impacts of the current conditions on the economy, as a large number of entrepreneurs were affected by the closure of some activities and the decline of sales.
The meeting valued the cooperation of real estate owners for their initiative in supporting small and medium enterprises through reduction or exemption of monthly rents.
Tariq bin Sulaiman Al Farsi, CEO of Al Rafd Fund, affirmed that the fund is continuing to provide various types of support to small and medium enterprises, getting impetus from the Royal directives of His Majesty Sultan Haitham Bin Tarik on paying attention to the SMEs sector.
Al Farsi said that since the beginning of the impacts of Covid-19 pandemic on the Sultanate, the Fund has implemented the decisions taken by the Covid-19 Supreme Committee, including postponing the installments of SMEs loans for a period of six months in coordination with the Oman Development Bank.
As far as Sanad Services Centres are concerned, Al Farsi said that the number of Sanad Services Centres increased in the first quarter of the current year 2020 to 853 centres, an increase of 7 per cent, compared to the number in the first quarter of 2019.
He added that the employment opportunities in the centres increased by 0.3 per cent to reach more than 2,300 jobs.