RIYADH: The Small and Medium Enterprises General Authority (Monshaat) announced that 824 enterprises (SMEs) had benefitted from its indirect lending initiative to the tune of over SR800 million ($213 million) on Tuesday. Authorized by the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA), 17 companies have become partners in the initiative, helping to raise the funds. The indirect lending initiative, launched by Monshaat in cooperation with the Social Development Bank, aims to provide low-cost loans for SMEs and entrepreneurs in the Kingdom. Monshaat designed it so that guarantors and lenders came from a diverse range of backgrounds, sharing the burden across the Saudi private sector and widening the reach of their investments. The initiative was launched with resources of SR1.6 billion. Monshaat urged male and female entrepreneurs and owners of SMEs to visit its website idl.monshaat.gov.sa to benefit from the initiative, where they will be able to check all the details related to the initiative and the partners authorized by SAMA. The initiative is an important cog in the Kingdom’s broader economic and social outlook, which aims to help boost SMEs to the point that they contribute up to 35 percent of Saudi gross domestic product by 2030.