A new agreement between Bahrain’s labour fund Tamkeen and Bahrain Development Bank (BDB) has added BD20 million ($52.7 million) to their joint enterprise finance portfolio, taking the scheme's corpus to BD170 million.

Through the partnership, Tamkeen and BDB provide Sharia-compliant finance facilities to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) under the former's Enterprise Finance Programme, said a report in the Gulf Daily News (GDN), our sister publication.

Tamkeen deputy chairman Khaled Al Amin said through various programmes, the semi-autonomous authority's mandate includes helping SMEs in Bahrain obtain the funds they require to expand and diversify their businesses apart from making them a key driver of sustainable economic development.

BDB chief executive Nedhal Saleh Al Aujan said the portfolio was increased in light of the efficiency of the programme and the success of the strategic partnership between the two organisations.

Joint initiatives by the two include the Business Incubator Support Scheme.

The scheme provides customised services to start-ups and fledgling enterprises, such as incubation units, facilities, low-cost financing, training, and strategic advisory services.

Since its launch, the Business Incubator Support Scheme has served more than 200 start-ups.

The joint finance programme, since its launch in September 2008, has offered 4570 finance facilities totalling BD137 million. - TradeArabia News Service