DOHA: Qatar Development Bank (QDB) has organised the second annual workshop for partner banks of Al Dhameen programme, which is a partial guarantee scheme of QDB.
This year, QDB cooperated with International Faculty of Finance (IFF), and emphasis was on customer relations managers and credit analysts of the Al Dhameen programme partner banks as they work directly with the customers.
QDB held the first workshop in 2012 in cooperation with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), and it was limited to senior officials and members of the higher management of a wide range of Qatari banks.
The workshop lasted for two days, in which the programme presented a comprehensive overview of the best practices in the field of offering financial services to small and medium enterprises worldwide, and the best methods to adapt those practices to suit the local market conditions.
“We are delighted to hold this workshop, which offers training and consultation for the second consecutive year to Qatar’s banks and other financial institutions to develop their abilities and potentials to finance small and medium enterprises, and help the banks understand the needs of this sector and meet them according to the highest international standards,” said Abdul Aziz bin Nasser Al Khalifa, QDB’s CEO.
Under Al Dhameen programme, the partner bank can finance a start-up or existing project and QDB guarantees up to 85 percent of the finance amount to the partner bank.
The idea is to cover a percentage of credit risks of the financing institution to encourage them to finance projects in the small and medium enterprises space that are viable but cannot offer collateral security or accounting records to prove their eligibility for financing.
This initiative comes within the QDB’s commitment to support the sustainable development of Qatar’s private sector by helping the partner banks develop their abilities in the field of offering financial services to small and medium enterprises.
The Peninsula
