Biban 24, on its second day, examined the importance of the role of development banks in the entrepreneurship ecosystem, as the SME sector is one of the vital sectors that contribute significantly to GDP.
The CEO of the Social Development Bank, Engineer Sultan bin Abdulaziz Al-Humaidi, and the CEO of the SME Bank, Abdulrahman bin Mansour, highlighted during the session several vital themes for ensuring access to financing for startups and SMEs and their development.
The participants emphasized that Saudi Vision 2030 has laid the foundations of a strong infrastructure for SME financing through a variety of programs. They pointed to the major role that development banks can play, aiming to create a comprehensive database for SME financing and to facilitate financing processes.
The panelists explained that development banks are working to study market challenges and enable Saudi youth to develop these promising sectors. They noted that development banks aim to reach promising sectors and cover the Kingdom’s various regions by building a solid database, and addressed the role of the private sector in supporting SMEs.