Muscat: Consolidating its efforts towards community welfare, grassroot engagement and sustainability, National Finance Company, Oman’s largest finance company, has announced the launch of ‘Imtidad’, its independent wing for sustainable initiatives. With ‘Imtidad’ – an Arabic word which means “an extension of impacting lives beyond business”, National Finance aims to bring a fresh perspective to its CSR programs inspired by the same core values that the company is committed to since its inception – community engagement, economic support and environmental protection.

Launching its first initiative under Imtidad, National Finance has renewed its previously successful partnership with Fund for Development of Youth Projects, SAOC – “Sharakah”, for the third consecutive year, with the objective of youth skills training and development, and supporting growth of Oman’s SME ecosystem. Both the organisations have a successful track record of previous initiatives supported by National Finance and implemented by Sharakah, which has received positive feedback from participants over the years. The agreement was signed by Mr. Ali Al Mani, Acting CEO at National Finance and Mr. Nasser Al Hajri, Board Member of Sharakah.

Commenting on the launch of Imtidad, Mr. Ali Al Mani, Acting Chief Executive Officer, said: “At National Finance, we are pleased to announce the launch of our ‘Imtidad’ program today which undertakes a strategic approach towards planning and implementing long-term sustainable initiatives those are beyond our day-to-day business operations. Imtidad stems from National Finance’s belief of growing with the communities, by effectively serving them to contribute to national socio-economic development. We will continues to launch several impactful initiatives for the benefit of the people of Oman under Imtidad.”

He further stated, “We are delighted to extend our existing partnership with Sharakah where we have already successfully contributed skill upliftment of more than 500 participants in our previous two years of working together. Through this collaboration, we aspire to enhance the skills of future entrepreneurs, helping them realize their potential and develop their projects.”

Imtidad’s kick-off program, as a joint initiative with Sharakah, will be spread over 10 months. It aims to provide consultancy and handholding services to selected 5 SMEs and conduct 5 ‘Calculate it Right’ workshops for existing and potential business owners and students from all around Oman. The initiative focuses on enabling entrepreneurs gain the right set of skills on financial management and proper resource planning.

Sharakah’s Board Member and Chief Operating Officer of NBO, Engr. Nasser Al Hajri said: “We are delighted to renew our collaboration with National Finance for the 3rd consecutive year. This time with the launch of ‘Imtidad’ which will take the program to a whole different level. We are pleased that National Finance has found the collaboration very useful for the community and thus continues to work with Sharakah. Launching of ‘Imtidad’ gives credence to our joint effort, as this year the scope has expanded only from conducting workshops to handholding and guiding existing SMEs over almost a year’s time. We believe this approach will generate a greater positive impact from the social investments programs and benefit the community”.

National Finance, established in 1987, has built a reputation as the market leader trusted by thousands of customers across the Sultanate. National Finance offers a wide range of products targeting both individual customers and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) through its 20 branches across the Sultanate. Recognizing its efforts, the company has won many accolades, the latest of these being the ‘Most Innovative Retail Finance – Automobile – Oman 2021’ Award by International Finance Awards, and the ‘Best SME Finance Solution 2021’ award by Capital Finance International (CFI.co).