‘Small Businesses Are The Spine of The Economy’: Head of MSME at Banque Saudi Fransi Posted on October 6, 2025December 15, 2025 By Kekeletso Nkele, small. Assistant (small.news) — On Oct. 1, 2025, our small.talk series continued with Bahaa Khashogji, who is the head of MSME at Banque Saudi Fransi, one of the leading banks in Saudi Arabia. Silver Lining Founder and CEO Carissa Reiniger spoke with Bahaa about the current state of small businesses. Bahaa brought his insights on economies, leadership, and how digitization can help small businesses grow. Q: What’s going on for small businesses in Saudi Arabia right now? A: MSMEs or small businesses are the beating heart of every economy here in Saudi Arabia. They are innovative. They create jobs. They are the spine of any economy. Top Stories Waving the Magic Silver Wand: How Collaboration, Capital, and Community Can Transform Small Business On April 22, 2026, Silver Lining’s Juan Pablo Rivadeneira, Claudia Uribe, and Omar Farahat joined small.talk to share what they’d change about the global small business landscape if they had a magic silver wand. The Classroom Was My First Boardroom: What Small Business Owners Can Learn From Teachers Who Build Companies When people picture a small business owner, they rarely think of someone managing 25 restless seven-year-olds in the morning. Some take vendor calls on lunch break. But they should. Q: Why do you think Saudi Arabia has been able to change so much so fast? A: We have great leadership. The Crown Prince is really focusing on diversifying the economy, bringing Saudi Arabia to become one of the top 10 economies in the world, with great determined leadership. They have great teams around them working also around the clock on making sure that we hit these targets. The government is being run as a private sector. We’re seeing assets coming in every year, every month, actually, and a lot of KPIs that were missing earlier than 2030. So even some of the KPIs that the government has put in place have already been achieved and exceeded. So the leadership constantly raised the bar. Q: How is BSF playing in the small business space? A: So we feel we’re a more crucial financial accelerator for small businesses as a corporate bank. We’re historically a corporate bank. We leverage our scale and expertise to provide the necessary capital beyond just the standard loans. We have customized specific products that address the unique cashflow requirements of small businesses, such as working capital and contract financing. We’re also focusing on digital assets and digital empowerment. It’s part of providing cutting-edge digital banking solutions for small businesses to simplify their operations, manage their cash flows more efficiently, and integrate with the growing e-commerce ecosystem. Q: What are your primary concerns for small businesses right now? A: Our biggest concerns is the challenge of access to skilled talent. And the other one is the pace of digital adoption for small businesses. So the economy is growing rapidly in Saudi Arabia. It’s very hot, driven by the mega projects and diversification efforts, which create fierce competition in the labor market. Q: What do you see as the opportunity for small businesses to be? A: Digital platforms where you can scale and get access to larger markets is really the opportunity today in Saudi Arabia and everywhere else. So with the technology shifts that are happening today, a micro enterprise based in Riyadh can instantly become a regional or even global player. So the opportunity is to enhance e-commerce by integrating FinTech into the financial ecosystem. The government has a very strong localization mandate, whether it’s government contracts or employment, giving priority to Saudi-manufactured goods. So small businesses can benefit from these opportunities to become suppliers or service providers to the massive economic activity that’s happening around Vision 2030. We’re in a golden age for specialized local services. Q: If you had a Magic Silver Wand and you could implement one change instantly that you think would have the most positive effect on small businesses, what would you use the silver wand for? A: Being a banker, my biggest change would be to have a unified, fully automated digital business passport, where a small business can seemingly move from licensing their business to opening a corporate account to getting subsidized financing. Through a single system where an entrepreneur can manage and scale their entire business needs, which would remove bureaucracy and dramatically increase efficiency, speed, and release a huge wave of entrepreneurial energy. You’ve heard their story—now write your own. silv=r™ is where it begins. Start here! Latest Stories
Waving the Magic Silver Wand: How Collaboration, Capital, and Community Can Transform Small Business On April 22, 2026, Silver Lining’s Juan Pablo Rivadeneira, Claudia Uribe, and Omar Farahat joined small.talk to share what they’d change about the global small business landscape if they had a magic silver wand.
The Classroom Was My First Boardroom: What Small Business Owners Can Learn From Teachers Who Build Companies When people picture a small business owner, they rarely think of someone managing 25 restless seven-year-olds in the morning. Some take vendor calls on lunch break. But they should.