Symposium held to support rural women

The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Water Resources, in cooperation with Oman Development Bank, held a symposium to support rural women in Dakhliyah on Tuesday. The symposium was held under the auspices of Mohammed Khamis al Husseini, Member of Majlis A’shura representing Samail.

Badr bin Abdullah al Siyabi, Director of Directorate General of Agricultural Wealth and Water Resources in Dakhliyah, said, “The symposium aimed to spread awareness on the importance of products made by rural women under the Rifi programme.”

Rifi is a financing programme for rural women launched in 2021 by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Water Resources and Oman Development Bank.

“The symposium also aimed to support and encourage the culture of entrepreneurship among women in rural areas, boost women's capabilities in the production, manufacturing and marketing sectors, and enhance their role in developing the economy of the rural community,” Siyabi said.

Rifi targets facilitating around 800 women entrepreneurs. The cost of the programme is more than Ro12mn. The bank expects to provide funding of about

Ro10mn in the next five years.

The programme aims to enable women who are looking to launch agricultural and livestock projects and to benefit from the incentives and packages provided by the ministry and easy funding from the bank.

The programme also aims to localise advanced agricultural industries, enhance and increase the contribution of rural women’s projects to the GDP, increase facilities for rural self-employment, develop the agricultural sector, and facilitate access to finance for women entrepreneurs in agricultural work.

The symposium aimed to spread awareness on the importance of products made by rural women Badr al Siyabi