Namaa Al Munawara, a non-profit organisation, has been launched by Prince Faisal Bin Salman to serve as the implementation arm of Al Munawara Endowment, which was developed to support and empower the SME sector in the Madinah region of Saudi Arabia.

“Al Madinah aims at strengthening socio-economic sustainability, given that it falls in line with Saudi Arabia’s developmental renaissance, under the leadership of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah,” said Prince Faisal at the launch of the organisation at an event in Taibah University recently.

Namaa Al Munawara’s headquarters will be spread over 20,750 sq m and will support entrepreneurs from start to finish.

It will provide designated work areas, sale points, workshops, lecture halls, interactive showrooms for ‘Madinah Made’ products, offices for Namaa’s success partners and the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (Sagia), and an art gallery to exhibit Madinah’s heritage and modern history.

Namaa Al Munawara has also signed a deal with Saudi Aramco to build development programmes for SMEs in addition to studying the possibility of creating a venture capital fund, said a statement.

Saudi Industrial Property Authority will allocate 100 medium-sized factories which will be operational over the course of the next four years, 28 of which will be delivered during the first phase of the project, it said.

To translate its strategy into actions, Namaa Al Munawara has come up with a number of key initiatives, including One Stop Shop, Female Creativity Labs, Al Munawara Oases and Al Munawara Industrial City.

Ahmed Al Mahayri, CEO of Namaa Al Munawara, said: “Serving Al Madinah is an honourable act of worship portraying the joy of giving. This comprehensive agenda of projects places Al Madinah at the forefront of Arab leadership, given that the company’s headquarters extend over an area exceeding 20,000 square meters, and is one of the Middle East’s largest SME accelerators.” - TradeArabia News Service