Lending a helping hand to help SMEs grow in Saudi Arabia

RIYADH: Homam Hashem is the chief executive officer at the Kafalah Fund, a financing guarantee program for small and medium-sized enterprises.
Hashem has a long track record in several banks and financial institutions in the Kingdom stretching over 24 years. He attended many advanced training courses in the fields of finance, risk mitigation and financial consultancy.
He also served as an international consultant for Visa International.
Hashem held many leading positions in the field of finance, until he joined the Kafalah Fund in 2017.

Hashem studied computer information systems, receiving his bachelor’s degree from King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals in 1992. He also holds a diploma in banking operation management from the Institute of Public Administration.
Over the past few years, the Kingdom has paid lot of attention to strengthen the small and medium enterprises.
The Small and Medium Enterprises Financing Guarantee Program by Kafalah is one of the national programs specialized in serving the SME sector in the Kingdom. The Kafala program is a collaboration between the Ministry of Finance, represented by the Saudi Industrial Development Fund and Saudi banks, which aims to promote financing to SMEs within the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
During the pandemic in 2020, and in the midst of the crisis, the demand for guarantees from Kafalah program increased by more than 106 percent from the previous year.