Effect of COVID 19 on Micro Finance: A Case of Saudi Arabia
Azzebedi, Azhar
Azzebedi, Azhar
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Abstract
COVID 19 has created a wave of disruption among many large, small and medium enterprises across the world. The Saudi government and Saudi Central Bank adopted a proactive stance and issued a series of support packages after the first COVID-19 case was recorded on March 2, 2020. In this research, we aimed at analyzing how micro finance firms survived the COVID 19 economic fluctuations in Saudi Arabia. We also wanted to generate exposure of the positive and negative aspects of COVID 19 on the micro finance ecosystem in Saudi Arabia, to understand how micro finance has helped public during COVID 19 and to determine how artificial intelligence has helped the financial institutions survive COVID 19. The target audience are the employees belonging to different divisions of companies operating in the financial sector of Saudi Arabia. The population includes both male and female. The sample contains men and women belonging to the age group of 20 – 40 years. The sample size consists of 80 research participants. We found out that, SMEs and Startups were benefitted with Microfinance of Bab Rizq Jameel during COVID 19. COVID 19 restricted many operational activities and had a huge impact on funds and financial stability of businesses. However, Micro financing programs help us in increasing the productivity of business processes during COVID 19. We also found out that, Covid 19 allowed finance sector to identify new business opportunities such as integration of artificial intelligence.