MUSCAT: The total loans provided by Oman Development Bank from July 1997 to March 2017 amounted to 57,616 loans in all development sectors with a total value of about RO 466,691,958 with an annual average of 2,881 loans worth RO23,334,589. The projects financed by ODB range from industrial, commercial, agricultural, fisheries and services (including health, education, tourism and public services sectors). ODB is one of the governmental entities that seek to support the various productive sectors in the Sultanate.
ODB has been keen to keep pace with the successive five-year plans from July 1997 to the first quarter of 2017, believing in its developmental role in the national economy and pushing forward diversification of economic sectors. More than 40.8 per cent of the total value of loans disbursed by the bank since its inception was for the industrial projects. The bank believes that the industrial sector is the most economically viable in the Vision 2020 and is the largest incubator for small and medium enterprises. Fisheries sector is the most prominent sectors financed by Oman Development Bank.
The projects financed by the bank in this promising sector amounted to 27,757 loans at a rate of 48.2 per cent and a total value of RO95,740,709, representing 20.52 per cent of the total value of loans financed by the bank between
July 1997 and the first quarter of 2017.
The bank has been keen to allocate about 22.42 per cent of the value of loans it financed with a total of RO104,609,392, where the number of projects financed by the bank in the service sector during the past twenty years was 4,462 projects with a percentage of 7.75 per cent of the number of projects funded during the same period.
Perhaps the big difference between the funding ratio and the number of projects is due to the large financing needed by the service projects.
The number of projects financed by the bank in the agriculture and livestock sector between July 1997 and the first quarter of this year amounted to about 13,955 projects with 24.23 per cent in terms of the number of funded projects, amounting to RO75,922,362, representing 16.27 per cent of the total value of the funded projects.
Oman Development Bank has witnessed remarkable growth in the field of development finance since it was established.
Between 1998 and 2000, the bank funded a total of 99,199 projects, with a growth rate of 9 per cent with a total value of RO21,037,420.
Between 2001 and 2004, there was an increase of 11 per cent in the number of projects and a decrease of 23 per cent in the value of loans.
The number of loans financed by the bank during the period amounted to 3631 projects valued at RO11,949,254.
The bank started a steady growth rate between 2005 and 2010 in line with the economic growth experienced by the national economy during that period. The bank funded 22,668 projects, a growth rate of 31 per cent, with a total value of RO160,203,233, with a growth rate of more than 70 per cent.
The upward growth continued between 2011 and 2015, with the bank achieving a growth rate of around 11 per cent, at a value of RO 205,973,521.
In the same period, the bank funded 22,377 projects with a growth rate of 5 per cent. — ONA
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