Riyadh, Saudi Arabia— The National Development Fund (NDF) of Saudi Arabia has since March 2020 financed SAR28 billion ($7.45 billion) to aid the healthcare and education sectors, support citizens and stimulate the local economy that was affected by Covid-19 pandemic.
NDF closely monitored the consequences of the pandemic and directed its support to all economic sectors while focusing on the most affected segments, SPA reported.
Initiatives from the Social Development Bank and Kafalah Program were introduced to finance small and emerging enterprises specialized in health care and education.
In addition to financing medical and pharmaceutical projects and restructuring loans for small, medium, and large medical projects through the initiatives of the Saudi Industrial Development Fund.
NDF also targeted to support employment in the private sector, train employees, finance individuals, and enable self-employment through the initiatives of the Human Resources Development Fund (HRDF) and the Social Development Bank.
Agricultural sector was assisted by stimulating small and medium enterprises and facilitating the import of agricultural products through the initiatives of the Agricultural Development Fund.
Moreover, NDF adopted initiatives of Kafala Program to support the Hajj and Umrah sector, sports sector, and supply chains. The support was also extended to the aviation sector to overcome the exacerbating negative effects the industry was under.
The support beneficiaries have exceeded (350,000) individuals and (36,000) large, medium, small, and micro-enterprises.
The Saudi Fund for Development launched an initiative to postpone outstanding debts and restructure the soft loans for 33 developing countries worldwide to ease their burden and enable them to focus on their response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
