‘Tamkeen’ has issued a report to announce the progress it has made during the first half of 2017.
The fund‘s main goal is to foster the national economy by increasing the role of the private sector. It also encouraged the entrepreneurship among the young Bahraini generation. During the first six months of 2017, the number of companies that were in the process of incorporation was 30% of the total number of firms supported by Tamkeen for the same period.
Since January, the fund has launched several programs to provide young companies with guidance and support to reach their full potential. The most important one was the ”Tamkeen+” program. It offered private business a capital injection exceeding BD 1 million dinars. Another successful initiative was ”Taqdeer”. It rewarded companies that exceed their targeted number of Bahraini employees.
Next to supporting businesses, Tamkeen also invested in individuals. During the first half of the year, the fund financed the continuing education of more than 2000 Bahraini people, which is 19% more than H1 2016. They all obtained professional certificates in various fields. The total value of the program was BD 3.1 billion. With the financial help of the program, some 378 Bahraini individuals received their first certificates in English.
The Enterprise Support Program provided over BD15.5 million to more than 670 organizations from various sectors. Some Pre-Startup and Start-up business incorporated in the last four years received over BD 4.5 million.
All 36 state secondary schools with their 5000 students took part in the A9eel program. The Kingdom also accepted 10 participants to AIESEC cultural exchange initiative.
The number of customers served by Tamkeen exceeded 7800 in July 2017. Since the beginning of the year, the fund worked with more than 70, 400 customers. Half of them asked for help via the call center. 33 % attended one of the many branches of Tamkeen across the country.Since January 2017, Tamkeen took part in nearly 300 events with 8897 beneficiaries. During the holy month of Ramadan, Tamkeen visited 150 councils, compared to 81 during the same period last year.