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6/30/25, 3:13 PM Bridging the liquidity gap for small businesses in the Middle East | Khaleej Times
financial system evolves to meet the speed, scale, and digital-first expectations of SMEs, economic
ambitions risk falling short.

A system still built for big corporates

The SME financing journey across Mena remains fragmented, outdated, and often exclusionary.
Traditional lenders continue to apply legacy credit models that are heavily based on collateral, formal
balance sheets, and lengthy disbursement timelines — models designed for corporates, not the agile,
tech-driven small businesses driving today’s economy. The result: countless SMEs with strong

revenue pipelines and growing markets find themselves locked out of the financial system simply
because they do not fit a decades-old model.

Consider the example of a logistics SME based in Riyadh, which operates with a strong monthly
turnover but faces 90-day payment cycles from its corporate clients. Despite its financial health, the
company struggled to secure a working capital loan because it lacked three years of audited financial
statements — a standard bank requirement that does not reflect the agility demanded in today’s
supply chain businesses.

UAE has initiated the Grand Khalifa Fund, which expanded from Dh300 million ($82 million) in 2007
to Dh2 billion. The Saudi banks have increased SME lending levels under Vision 2030 mandates.

However, the extended financing ecosystem does not adequately cater to high-growing SMEs. Such
schemes, though sincere, are often hampered by structural inefficiencies, showing limited risk
appetite in the conventional banking sector, long time frames in the approval process, a lack of

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