Sharakah increases fund limit to RO 350,000

Adapting to changes in the economic environment and to be inline with the market demand, Fund for Development of Youth Projects SAOC (Sharakah) announced on its social media accounts some updates related to their regulations and norms. Starting from July 1, 2017, Sharakah will increase its fund limit from RO 200,000 to RO 350,000. Few other changes have also been introduced including a reduction in the interest rate for the bill discounting scheme and increase in the credit period.

The updates, which are related to the organisations operational manual, include the increase of the maximum funding limit to reach RO 350,000 in both loan and equity schemes for the small and medium enterprises. Moreover, the minimum percentage of shares to be purchased by Sharakah is now only 10 per cent for the equity scheme.

Abdullah al Jufaili (pictured), General Manager, Sharakah commented, “Every year we conduct a survey that is distributed to all our clients where we assess their level of satisfaction to the services offered to them. We always invite them to suggest areas for improvement. The changes that we are introducing now are in response to those suggestion, changes in the market and to be in line with our long-term objectives.

Starting July of this year, we are going to increase the fund limit to RO 350,000 from what has been RO 200,000. The minimum amount for financial support will also be increased from RO 10,000 to RO 25,000. We believe that this will help us achieve our objective of supporting growth stage businesses. The new finance limit will also allow us to tap into the manufacturing sector as light manufacturing has been identified as one of the sectors that has great potential in Oman’s economy.”

He added, ‘‘We are also introducing changes in the credit period for bill discounting. It used to be 90 days and we are increasing it to 120 days.

We know that SMEs have challenges in maintaining a positive cash flow. Some of them supply to large organisations and it takes a long time for them get paid back. We have also reduced the interest rate for the bill discounting scheme.”

To date, Sharakah has invested more than RO 6 million in SMEs. More than 150 projects have received financial support and guidance to help them grow the business. Some of the projects supported have grown in market size and customer base. Sharakah stays committed in ensuring that SMEs grow nationally and expand regionally.