The General Authority for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Saudi Arabia, known as ‘Monsha’at’, has launched the ‘Future Entrepreneur’ initiative in collaboration with the Saudi Ministry of Education. The initiative is designed to equip participants with the necessary skills and knowledge to start their own business ventures, enabling them to tackle various entrepreneurial challenges across different sectors.
Target Audience of the Initiative
According to the Saudi Press Agency (SPA), the initiative targets male and female students of public education, aiming to endow them with cognitive skills and experiences to solve entrepreneurial challenges. The initiative has successfully registered about 17,000 beneficiaries from across the kingdom on its website and has activated an entrepreneurs’ market in Riyadh with the participation of 30 student projects that were qualified from a total of 83 projects listed on the site.
Three Core Programs
The initiative includes three main programs:
- Foundational Entrepreneurial Skills Program, comprising six narrative educational videos for each educational stage.
- Entrepreneurs’ Market Program: Markets activated in five Saudi cities in partnership with commercial complexes – Riyadh, Dammam, Abha, Hail, and Jeddah – each featuring 30 projects for display and sale to market visitors.
- Entrepreneurial Challenge Competition, featuring entrepreneurial contests aimed at finding innovative solutions to a range of challenges faced by entrepreneurs, including monetary prizes and incentives for the winners.
Spreading the Culture of Entrepreneurship
As per SPA, this initiative is part of Monsha’at’s efforts to spread the culture of entrepreneurship, freelance work, and innovation among the emerging generation. By providing them with the basic skills needed at the start of their entrepreneurial journey, the initiative smooths out any potential challenges that might impede their business growth. The educational content is tailored to each educational stage, ensuring the initiative’s impact is effective and sustainable.
About the General Authority for Small and Medium Enterprises
Established in 2016, Monsha’at is endowed with public legal personality and financial and administrative independence. It is organizationally linked to the Ministry of Commerce. Its goals are to regulate, support, develop, and sponsor the SME sector in the Kingdom, aligning with global best practices to enhance these enterprises’ productivity and increase their GDP contribution from 20% to 35% by 2030.
Monsha’at works to prepare, implement, and support programs and projects to disseminate the culture and philosophy of freelancing, entrepreneurial spirit, initiative, and innovation. It also diversifies financial support sources for SMEs, stimulates venture capital sector initiatives, and provides administrative, technical, managerial, marketing, human resources support, among other services to SMEs.
