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Friday, April 26, 2024 17:17 GMT
In partnership with BP Oman, Sharakah has selected the final 15 local small and medium enterprises to benefit from Khazzan for SMEs Development Program. The total number of applications received for this batch of the program was 214 applications with 105 completed applications and 109 incomplete applications. Where 80% of the completed applications were male applicants while only 20% were females.The highest number of applications received was from Muscat with 101 applications, while the lowest number of applications was from Musandam and Dhofar with 2 applications respectively. Sharakah has recently conducted an orientation workshop introducing the program and its milestones for the selected 15 SMEs for Khazzan for SMEs Development program. The workshop was attended by representatives from Destination Sustainability, a local business that follows up the implementation of the program, along with the selected SMEs.It is worth mentioning that Sharakah and BP Oman signed an agreement last October to launch the fifth version of Khazzan for SMEs Development program. The program is a result of the previous four years of collaboration with BP Oman in developing Omani SMEs as part of their Social Investment program that aims to support the growth of the Omani SMEs.The applications received were filtered based on the criteria announced on the website. Preference was given for Riyada card holders. As well as those who have completed at least one year in the market.Shamsa al Rawahiyah, Social Investment Manager of BP Oman, commented saying: ‘In BP Oman we invest in entrepreneurs and start-ups to support the vibrant Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) Sector in Oman. Through Khazzan for SMEs Development Program we also try to create a link between our social investment initiatives and the supply chain of BP Oman. We hope that this program addresses the topics of need to the targeted SMEs’Halima al Riyamiyah, Senior Project Specialist at Sharakah commented: “Khazzan project for SMEs Development aims at evaluating and assessing the performance of the 15 SMEs for a period of 12 months. We received applications representing different sectors of the service sector (46%), the trading sector (37%), and the manufacturing sector (17%). We wish them all the best and we trust on their abilities to develop for their business growth.”