Saudi Gazette report RIYADH – Three government and private authorities have agreed to provide easy loans totaling SR3 million to 500 Saudi women. The loans will allow the women to establish sustainable private projects. The Center for Building Productive Families (Jana) signed a cooperation agreement recently at the headquarters of Sulaiman Al-Rajhi Charitable Foundation in Riyadh. Jana was represented by Chairman of the Board of Directors Muhammad Hamad Al-Khamees and Takaful Foundation was represented by its director Abdulrahman Muhammad Al-Dowsari. The agreement states support and financial backing for 277 productive families in Dammam area at a cost of SR2 million. The center also signed a similar agreement with Al-Aradi Charitable Endowments. It was represented in the signing by Muhammad Ahmed Al-Aradi Al-Bluwi to support 238 productive families with a total of SR1 million. The CEO of Jana, Mahmood Al-Shami, said Jana Project is one of the projects of Sulaiman Abdulaziz Al-Rajhi Foundation. It is a socio-economic project that provides easy loans to women so they can set up commercial projects. The center targets not only poor and unemployed women but all women who are interested in productive projects by providing them with loans and instilling in them the culture of work and the principle of self-reliance. The projects are expected to contribute to reducing poverty and unemployment in society and providing sustainable financial support to those in need. Al-Shami cited the case of a woman who was given a loan of SR3,000, which she turned into a project worth SR1 million. Al-Shami said the center has provided over 38,000 jobs to women in Al-Khobar, Qassim, Jazan, Hail, Makkah, Arar, Al-Jouf, Yanbu, Baha and Al-Ahsa over the past six years with loans reaching SR162 million. The percentage of settlement of the loans reached 99.6 percent. “This clearly indicates how successful are the commercial projects of female beneficiaries. This also indicates the efficiency of Jana Center in collecting loan installments from thousands of female clients in all the regions where it provides its services. There are 165 male and female employees working in the center,” he said.
