National Social Aid Fund has financed 1743 small and micro-sized enterprises since 2018

Since its establishment in 2018, the National Social Aid Fund has funded 1743 small and micro-sized enterprises within the framework of the program for supporting and empowering the Syrian countryside.

Louai al-Aranji, Director of the Fund told SANA economic bulletin that the total value of funding these enterprises is more than 1.8 billion Syrian pounds.

According to al-Aranji,  funding is done through loans obtained from the branches of the Cooperative Agricultural Bank in all the Syrian provinces. The fund pays 4% of the loan’s interest while the owner of the project pays 6%.

He went on to say that the program for supporting and empowering the Syrian countryside was expanded to include loans for supporting and empowering the military personnel who ended their military service within the framework of a program launched by the cabinet last February. This program grants each interested person 35,000 Syrian pounds monthly for a year and it also funds small and micro-sized enterprises.

 He pointed out that the fund’s budget has increased to become 3 billion Syrian pounds instead of 2 billion to provide funding for different projects.

The enterprises cover different vocations and crafts  such as carpentry, sewing, auto repair, agricultural activities, rural industries such as the breeding of bees, mushrooms, poultry, livestock, in addition to dairy industry, fruit drying, grain packing and some small commercial activities such as shops for selling sweet, coffee, meat and electrical and sanitary materials.

The goal of the Syrian countryside support and empowerment program is to reactivate the labor market and provide it with new projects that meet the market need and achieve economic and social development.

Hamda Mustafa