Riyadh – Mubasher: The Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA) has introduced the “Private Sector Financing Support Program” with a total value of about SAR 50 billion.

The programme aims at supporting the private sector to promote economic growth through a package of measures that come in line with the government efforts to combat the new coronavirus (COVID-19) and mitigating its financial and economic impacts, especially on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

The first pillar of the programme focuses on supporting SME finance, by reducing the burden of cash flow fluctuations, supporting working capital and growth, through deferred payments after depositing an amount of about SAR 30 billion for banks and financing companies to delay the payment of the dues of the financial sector from SMEs for a period of six months as of mid-March.

Moreover, SAMA is providing about SAR 13.2 billion funding for the lending programme for SMEs, as well as SAR 6 billion for a loan guarantee programme to relieve SMEs from the finance costs of the KAFALA Programme.

The second pillar of the programme is supporting fees of POS and e-commerce platforms for three months with an amount exceeding in total SAR 800 million.

“SAMA will pay these fees to payment service providers participating in the national system,” according to a statement on Saturday.

Thirdly, SAMA revealed that it is coordinating with banks and finance companies to facilitate finance repayments for institutions in the holy cities of Makah and Medina that have been affected by the recently implemented precautionary measures.