Oman Development Bank (ODB) has granted RO19.2mn under the emergency loan programme launched in 2020, which was distributed among 8,000 beneficiaries, amounting to an average of RO2,400 per borrower.

The emergency loan programme accounted for just 28 per cent of the total volume of loans granted by ODB in 2020.

ODB granted more than 11,800 development and emergency loans in 2020, worth approximately RO68.8mn, in comparison to RO60.75mn loans that were granted in 2019, marking a marginal increase of 13 per cent.

An order was passed in June 2020 to adopt an emergency loan programme without interest to help businesses most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Additionally, in 2020, the bank implemented a loan deferral programme to alleviate the impact of the pandemic on the beneficiaries of its services. This programme benefitted about 2,800 borrowers.

ODB stated that working capital loans constituted the largest value-share of the granted development loans, with a total value of RO13.9mn for 420 loans, out of more than 3,784 regular development loans, with a value of about RO49.53mn. 

This was followed by micro-loans with a total value of RO13.4mn.

The total value of loans granted to large companies surpassed RO12.5mn for 18 development loans. The number of loans granted to the small and medium enterprises sector was 192 with a total value of RO9.6mn. The bank granted 41 seasonal loans with a total value of RO190,000.

Last year, the bank granted 3,000 industrial loans to the manufacturing sector, with a total value of RO22.4mn, followed by the professional and public services sector, which obtained the largest number of loans (5,588), worth more than RO17.1mn. 

The tourism sector comes third in terms of the value of approved loans in 2020. The bank granted 470 loans for tourism projects with a total value of approximately RO8.7mn, followed by the fisheries sector with 1,277 loans with a total value of about RO8.1mn.

The loans granted to the educational sector amounted to more than 1,151 with a total value of RO6.9mn. The bank granted 569 loans to the agricultural and livestock sector, with a total value of RO3.9mn. It granted 44 loans to the health sector, with a total value of RO1.4mn, and 16 loans to the mining sector, with a total value of RO300,000.