Saturday 10 / May / 2025
Muscat: Despite the worldwide disruption caused by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, registrations of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the Sultanate have seen a healthy rise, according to official data.
The total number of SMEs registered with the Public Authority for Small and Medium Enterprises Development (Riyada) at the end of October 2020 stood at 47,220, according to data released by a government agency.
This represents an increase of 12.9 per cent compared to the same period of 2019, according to the data released by the National Centre for Statistics and information (NCSI).
Among the governorates, Muscat topped the list with 33.48 per cent of such enterprises registered till the end of October 2020, the NCSI data revealed.
It was followed by the governorate of North Al Batinah with 15.79 per cent of the registrations, Al Dakhliyah with 12.63 per cent and Dhofar with 8.35 per cent.
The rest of governorates accounted for the remaining 29.75 per cent of the total SME registrations.
The Governorate of Muscat had 15,810 SMEs registered at the end of October 2020.
This was followed by Al Batinah North with 7,456, Al Dakhliyah with 5,965, Dhofar with 3,941, Al Batinah South with 3,524, and North Al Sharqiyah with 3,180 SMEs registered.
South Al Sharqiyah had 2,776 Small and Medium Enterprises registered, while Al Dhahirah had 2,760 SMEs, and Al Buraimi 1,015.
At the lower end, Al Wusta had 611 SMEs registered and Musandam 182.
This was the lowest number of small and medium enterprises registered in any of the governorates at the end of October 2020.
The total number of SMEs registered in September 2020 was 46,577, while the number of SMEs in August 2020 was 45,706.
