The Small and Medium Enterprises General Authority “Monsha’at” issued its SME Monitor report for the second quarter of 2023, which revealed a 2.6% increase in the number of SMEs in the Kingdom compared with the first quarter of this year, reaching 1.23 million enterprises, most of them concentrated in the capital, Riyadh, with 42.3%, followed by Makkah Region with 18.6%.
The Monitor, issued in Arabic and English, covered Aseer Region and the major investment opportunities it offers entrepreneurs thanks to its unique advantages in tourism, agriculture, industry, and other sectors. In this edition, Monsha’at also honored the late photographer Hani Al-Zahrani by featuring one of his artistic works that highlights the beauty of the region as the report’s cover image.
The Monitor opened this quarter’s edition with a foreword by the Acting CEO of the Aseer Development Authority, Engineer Hashim Al-Dabbagh, in which he explained that the authority has completed a study of 70 investment opportunities prepared by the Aseer Region Municipality and its municipalities, which will be offered through the Furas platform in the coming period. He noted that the authority signed an agreement with the Social Development Bank to allocate SAR 1 billion to support SMEs in Aseer Region.
The report reviewed the latest venture capital funding figures for the first half of this year, which saw an increase that helped make the Kingdom the second-largest country in funding volume and number of deals compared with the markets of the Middle East and North Africa, resulting in around SAR 1.7 billion in funding for startups in the Kingdom, most of it concentrated in the e-commerce and retail sectors, at 83%.
The report also highlighted the tourism sector, one of the promising sectors for SMEs, through a set of government initiatives and programs to support enterprises, including the SAR 1 billion financing initiatives launched by the Tourism Development Fund, along with the tourism sector product, the largest program dedicated by the Kafalah program to SMEs.
The report also highlighted expert insights and success stories in various fields, including interviews with the CEO of the Tourism Development Fund, Qusai Al-Fakhri; the Chairman of the Federation of Saudi Chambers and Chairman of Abha Chamber, Hassan Al-Huwaizi; the founder and CEO of MAGNiTT, Philip Bahoshy; the Co-Founder and CEO of the software company Penny, Iyad Aldalooj; and other experts and specialists in entrepreneurship.
The SME Monitor report for the second quarter of 2023 is available to view.