The newly established financing company in Saudi Arabia, Positive Facilities Co. Ltd. (“Ejabiah”), has signed an agreement on the 26th of August with Path Solutions for the implementation of its interest-free core banking platform.
Ejabiah will be offering a unique and much needed zero-percent interest financing product, which is similar to Qard Hassan or benevolent loan. Ejabiah comes with the strategy to expand the penetration of digital financial services at low cost in the country and enable small and medium business to have access to cost effective financing solutions. The company’s five-year plan is to serve up to 50,000 SME customers in Saudi Arabia with affordable financing loans at 0% interest with an estimated total number of financing transactions exceeding 30 million transactions per year.
The Ejabiah interest-free product is a viable option to reduce financial exclusion by extending financing to those who are unable to access any commercial microfinance lending either due to lack of affordability owing to high cost of funding, lack of credit history, or being part of a market segment that is not served by the current financial institutions.
“Ejabiah will be championing a more sustainable, diverse, and transparent banking in the Kingdom through the implementation of positive banking concept to create a more prosperous future for all”, commented Riyadh Al Rabiah, Managing Director of Ejabiah. “We believe it is now the perfect timing for our incorporation with a business strategy to meet the demands of more knowledgeable banking customers. Our IT unit understands the vital role of digital technology in today’s banking and financial services industry to assist customers in identifying the right financial solutions to achieve their objectives, both for current and future needs. As a newly established company in Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia, Ejabiah will have the advantage of launching innovative interest-free products and services to its customers while capitalizing on the latest digital alternatives”.
Ejabiah will be serving SMEs and entrepreneurs such as the food and beverages sector, retailors, contractors, small industries and workshops.
Path Solutions’ Sharia-compliant core banking platform is customized to ensure product-market fit in line with positive banking, and complete regulatory adherence through open banking technology, which would enhance Ejabiah’s profitability, perceived value, functional quality and service quality.
“We are excited to have our first iMAL subscription cloud-based win in Saudi Arabia hosted on Oracle cloud. This SaaS model will continue to gather steam in the region as it provides superior economics, empowers digital transformation, enhances efficiency and reduces cost. It provides our clients with highly secure, compliant, available and scalable system while reducing physical infrastructure footprint and frees them to focus on growing their business. The financial sector is experiencing technology-led disruptions, and hence adaptability and rapid response are imperative to remain relevant in a changing business environment, and this model just works”, Mohammed Kateeb, the Group Chairman & CEO of Path Solutions said in a statement. “We are looking forward to collaborate with Ejabiah to enable them to capture robust growth opportunities by delivering sustainable and impactful digital solutions since more customers are becoming literate of the digital services at present”, he said.
Positive Facilities or Ejabiah, the newly established financing company, is getting ready to be deployed in the sandbox of the Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) and is scheduled to officially commence its lending operations in the fourth quarter of 2021. This project will be implemented in three phases with a total estimated duration for completion around 11 months. The first phase is expected to be completed within 7-8 months to enable Ejabiah to expand its operations.
