ODB enhances financing of SMEs

Muscat: Talal Al Zadjali, director of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) department at the Oman Development Bank (ODB), said that the bank's strategic plan was to enhance the financing of small, medium and micro enterprises by increasing the loan portfolio, diversifying products or creating new products to suit the aspirations of entrepreneurs. It is also to match the requirements of the labour market.
He said that the number of SMEs’ development projects supported by the government for which the ODB provided loans from January till October this year reached 294. The total amount of finance it provided was OMR 12,847,094. These projects which got ODB’s financial support were of various products and services sectors expected to help achieve self-sufficiency. He said that the ODB attached importance to development financing which is aimed at promoting entrepreneurial initiatives in the Sultanate and empowering entrepreneurs.
He said that the number of micro-projects financed by the ODB in the same period this year was 4,795. They got loans worth OMR 19,610,049.
He pointed out that the bank is keeping pace with the government's financing plans for the industrial, agricultural, fisheries and tourism sectors or the new sectors that the government focuses on in its plans for economic diversification such as logistics and mining. Al Zadjali said that the ODB was innovating financing programmes for entrepreneurs. For the purpose, it is studying the market so that it marches with the requirements.