Business & Money | Saturday 26 January, 2019 11:31 am |

Makkah Gov. Prince Khaled Al-Faisal on Friday inaugurated a new center set up to nurture the growth of family businesses.

The Osar Center, managed by the Makkah Region Development Authority, aims to help industrious families become self-employed by running school canteens.

Prince Khaled said more than 300 families had taken part in the “Osar” project during 2018, securing the jobs of for 45 female workers in the process.

During a meeting headed by Prince Khaled and attended by the deputy governor of Makkah, Prince Badr bin Sultan bin Abdul Aziz, Jeddah Gov. Prince Mishaal bin Majid, the undersecretary of Makkah, Dr. Hisham bin Abdulrahman Al-Faleh, and other officials, the project’s achievements were reviewed.

The program is supervised by the Municipality of Makkah and run in partnership with the province’s education departments and the Ministry of Labor and Social Development.

Prince Khaled gave a breakdown of the towns and cities where families had joined the project last year. A total of 82 were in Jeddah, 77 in Makkah, 53 in Al-Jumum, 50 in Taif, 21 in Al-Lith, and seven in Rabigh, Adham and Al-Qunfudhah respectively. 

As part of the inauguration ceremony, Prince Khaled attended the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the Social Development Bank and the Osar Center in Makkah. 

The agreement aims to provide the necessary support to promote self-employment among specific community groups, including help with business development and sales, and the organization of exhibitions, markets and other business events.