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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

Al Raffd Fund issues loans worth RO 96m

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By Staff Reporter — MUSCAT: March 20 - Al Raffd Fund said yesterday that the total number of loans issued by the fund, which included support for livelihood programmes, amount to RO 96 million (6,087 applications) for the period from January 2014 till December 2016.


Of these, around 1,730 loans were given to support the Oman Development Bank (ODB) to the tune of over RO 69 million, of which 65 million has been already disbursed for projects that provided 3,138 jobs to Omanis.


Tariq al Farsi. CEO, Al Raffd Fund, said at the press conference that the proportion of arrears in the payment of the Fund’s loans did not exceed two per cent. He said that the fund was aimed at helping young Omanis and the results showed that 2.83 per cent of the projects funded were for Omanis in the age group 18 to 45 years, while the total entrepreneurs in the age group (46 and above.)


He said the projects financed by the fund diversified into many sectors, industrial projects accounted for about nine per cent, transport projects at 2.19 per cent, and service sector projects at 6.23 per cent, apart from other economic sectors such as tourism and the most promising oil and gas and education.


Muscat had the highest percentage of the projects funded at 8.32 per cent.


On the challenges and difficulties faced by some of the projects financed by the Fund, Farsi said these include poor skills in administrative, financial and marketing matters. Other issues include the unavailability of the national workforce, ill-planned, unfair competition and lack of full-time commitment.


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