Creation of special bank for poor Saudis mooted

AGFUND chief Prince Talal, second left, Nobel Laureate Mohammed Yunus, extreme left, and Suleiman Al-Herbish, OFID director-general, right, during a symposium on microfinance in Riyadh on

By GHAZANFAR ALI KHAN I ARAB NEWS

RIYADH: A Nobel laureate has supported Prince Talal’s idea to create a special bank for poor Saudi citizens at a symposium in Riyadh on Wednesday.

Muhammad Yunus said there was a need to create a banking system based on mutual trust, accountability, participation and creativity with a mission to help the poor.

Prince Talal, chief of the Arab Gulf Program for Development (AGFUND), told the symposium that there was a possibility of designing a credit delivery system to provide banking services “targeted at the poor segment of Saudi society” with a mission to uplift them.

On the sidelines of the symposium, two agreements were signed between AGFUND and the Jeddah-based Islamic Development Bank (IDB) — the first one to boost cooperation between the two institutions and the second to conduct a study on the “impact of AGFUND prizes on society.” The symposium on microfinance and the role of social business was addressed by Dr. Ahmed Mohammad Ali, IDB president; Suleiman Al-Herbish, director-general of OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID); and Nasser Al-Qahtani, AGFUND’s executive director.

The symposium was jointly organized by AGFUND and the Council of Saudi Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

Read more here: http://arabnews.com/saudiarabia/article562640.ece

1 reply ›

  1. Why not, oil countries can and should do all possible for their underprivileged citizens. (and all ‘guests’ in the country!!! The ‘guest workers’ should also be supported and given a minimum standard of living).

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