The Saudi Credit & Saving Bank signed an agreement with Bab Rizq Jameel (BRJ), an affiliate of Abdul Latif Jameel Community Services Programs (ALJCSP), through which the bank will allocate a portfolio of SR100 million to support and finance existing and new small projects, entrepreneur projects and productive household projects. The purpose of the agreement is to establish a partnership between the public and private sectors to help create effective mechanism and investment channels that benefit the Saudi young males and females and enable them to start and own their own projects. Accordingly, young males and females could secure continuous income and jobs for themselves and for other young males and females, which will certainly be in the benefit of the national economy. The agreement comes as an extension to the previous agreements signed between BRJ and the Credit Bank in 2007, in which the bank allocated SR 10 million to finance 169 young project owners throughout the Kingdom, out of 8,000 young males and females who received finance. Abdul Rahman Al Suhaibani, General Manager of the Saudi Credit & Saving Bank stated that the agreement is part of the agreements signed by the bank with several public and private organization to facilitate the bank's mission to finance and support existing and new small project. Saying that this is stated in the Banks charter issued in 1426H, Al Suhaibani added that the bank welcome all forms of cooperation with the private sector for the benefit of existing and new small projects, which represent 90% of the business organizations in the Kingdom. According to the new agreement, the bank will support owners of small projects with SR 100 million through BRJ. The role of BRJ will include receiving applications from finance seekers through its branches in the Kingdom, and will conduct interviews and feasibility studies. In adition, BRJ will visit the project owners, and financing committee will approve the application before arranging with the bank to collect the financing. BRJ will also follow up payment of installments, field visits to the projects and will seek to find out the possible ways to support the project owner. In addition, BRJ will coordinate with the Human Resources Development Fund (HRDF) to provide the necessary support for small projects owners. The Saudi Credit & Saving Bank and BRJ will cooperate to launch advertising campaigns and will exchange periodical reports between them. In addition, the bank and BRJ will coordinate the process of collecting the installments. Engineer Mohammed Abdul Latif Jameel, President of Abdul Latif Jameel Co., appreciated the Saudi Credit & Saving Bank for their initiative, saying that the initiative will certainly contribute in developing small projects and will serve more Saudi young males and females who desire to start their own projects. Eng. Jameel mentioned that the collection rate in the small projects that he supports has exceeded 97 percent. Bab Rizq jameel has provided support to more than 8,000 small businesses since the launch of small projects program in 2004.
