Abu Dhabi’s Khalifa Fund for Enterprise Development has administered more than $350 million in loans and directly created 15,000 jobs, according to its new Impact Report.

In its impact report published on Monday, the fund said that from 2007 to 2019, it issued a total of AED 1.32 billion ($359 million) across 1,168 activated loans with an overall return on investment of 15.5 percent and a profit margin of 7.2 percent.

The report said 15,000 jobs in the SME sector had been created, 1,800 of which were for Emiratis, and 152 projects that export to the international market. The fund was responsible for creating six percent of all Emirati SMEs, it said.

Mouza Al Nasri, the fund’s acting CEO, said: “Khalifa Fund’s loans to the SME sector has resulted in major positive implications for the national economy, with SMEs being essential to the composition of the UAE’s economic landscape; making up 98 percent of businesses in the country, providing 29 percent of the national GDP, and 44 percent of the non-oil economy.

“We have seen an abundance of success in our Emirate-wide, nationwide and globally funded projects, in terms of monetary success, economic growth and job creation for Emiratis and expats alike.”

The Khalifa Fund began funding programmes Khutwa, Bedaya, Zeyada, Tasneea and Al Hassilah in 2007 as well as microcredit programmes. The fund also provides UAE SMEs with non-monetary support, such as capability building, training workshops, empowerment initiatives and business plan development, to support SMEs during the implementation and set-up phase.

The impact report showed that 60 percent of projects funded were profitable, with average monthly net profit of AED 19,568 and revenue of AED 277,940.

(Writing by Imogen Lillywhite; editing by Seban Scaria)

Imogen.lillywhite@refinitiv.com

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