Saudi Arabia: Saudi Arabia’s Small and Medium Enterprises General Authority, also known as Monsha’at, has signed a deal with the National Center for Inspection and Monitoring to foster collaboration in key areas such as conducting targeted studies.

Signed during the Biban Forum 2025, organized by Monsha’at in Riyadh from Nov. 5 to 8, the memorandum of understanding aims to further empower SMEs operating in the Kingdom. It will also explore tackling challenges faced by SMEs, and hosting workshops to promote awareness of legal and regulatory compliance procedures.

This falls in line with Vision 2030’s target to increase SME contributions to gross domestic product from 30 percent to 35 percent. With more than 1.8 million SMEs operating in the Kingdom, supporting this sector financially is seen as not only a policy goal but a macroeconomic necessity.

It also aligns well with how in 2024, Saudi Arabia led the Middle East in venture capital funding for SMEs, securing roughly $750 million.

The newly released statement said: “The signing of this MoU aligns with NCIM’s mission to coordinate inspection and monitoring efforts across government entities, enhance regulatory efficiency, and enhances private sector compliance with relevant regulatory standards.”

It added: “The MoU was signed by Turki bin Nasser Al-Dahmash, Vice President of Inspection Agencies at NCIM, and Suleiman bin Abdulrahman Al-Turaif, Deputy Governor for Planning and Development at Monsha’at.”

Lending to small, medium, and micro-enterprises in Saudi Arabia reached a record SR420.7 billion ($112.18 billion) by the end of the second quarter of 2025, up 37 percent from the same period of the previous year, official data released in October showed. 

This showed an increase of more than SR113.3 billion compared with the second quarter of 2024, when SME facilities stood at SR307.4 billion, the Saudi Press Agency reported at the time, citing data from the Saudi Central Bank, also known as SAMA.