Get Away from Oil, Says Oil-Kingdom Saudi Arabia, We Will Give You the Money for It

Saudi Arabia wants to move away from its dependency of crude oil, so the kingdom is offering loans to projects and manufacturers that could help develop its renewable energy resources.

The 28-billion-dollar Saudi Industrial Development Fund is adding the new program, Mutjadeda, complementing Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s plan for life after oil – or Vision 2030. The loans could be as high as around 320,000 dollars and will apply to large companies as well as independent production projects, whether Saudi or foreign-owned.

“Our objective is really to find new sources of energy to be less dependent on oil and to enable the manufacturing sector to continue its progress,” says Ahmed AlGwaiz, the industrial fund’s vice president of risk management. “We treat all clients, as long as they’re in Saudi Arabia, the same.”

The fund will even offer to finance firms in other sectorts that plan on using renewable energy. “Whether you’re in manufacturing, agriculture or retail, if you want to deploy renewable energy, we will finance it,” explains Ibrahim Almojel, the fund’s director general. “For renewables to be adopted in the kingdom, we need to support it.”