Muscat: The number of loans provided by Oman Development Bank (ODB), the leading bank in development financing in the Sultanate, reached to 3,062 between January and June.
These loans were given for various productive and service development sectors.
The value of the total loan provided by the bank in all governorates of the Sultanate reached to RO 35,125,254.
The growth rate of development lending increased by 4 per cent, while value of loans increased by 18 per cent over the same period last year.
This is due to the efforts the ODB is making to support economic development in the Sultanate and directing the national investments in the productive areas with additional value to help self reliance in commodities and goods, as well as create jobs for Omanis.
The statistics of ODB show that the industrial sector was the top beneficiary of the loans provided by the bank.
This sector got 1,133 loans, which is 37 per cent of the total number of loans.
The total value of the loan given to the industrial sector was RO 13,365,951, which is 38 per cent of the total loans.
This is an indicator that the bank supports the industrial sector in the country, in line with the policy of the Sultanate for the industrial development and investments to diversify the country’s sources of income.
The fisheries sector ranked second as beneficiary of the ODB loans in terms of the numbers. It got 760 loans, which is 25 per cent of the loans provided by the bank.
The total value of these loans was RO 4,211,191, which is 12 per cent of the total value of loans.
The fisheries sector is one of the major productive sectors financed by the Bank which increases employment opportunities in the fisheries sector in the Sultanate.
While the agriculture and livestock ranked third as beneficiary of the ODB loans.
The sector got 517 loans worth RO 4,098,594, which is 12 per cent of the total value of loans.
The number of loans granted by the ODB for professional services sector increased to 414, which is 14 per cent of the total number of loans.
It is worth RO 3,225,473, which is 9 per cent of the total value of loans. The number of loans for tourism in the first half of this year increased by 4 per cent to reach
to 130.
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