RIYADH: The Momentum 2025 conference on the future of development finance underscores the National Development Fund’s role as a central enabler of Saudi Arabia’s development according to its governor.

Speaking to Arab News on the first day of the three-day conference in Riyadh, NDF’s Stephen Groff said the forum aims to enhance cooperation among local development funds, banks, and international development finance institutions, while fostering stronger partnerships with public and private sector leaders to ensure the optimal deployment of resources in support of Vision 2030.

He emphasized the NDF’s focus on stimulating investment in non-oil sectors and supporting entrepreneurs and SMEs through innovative financing and guarantee tools.

Groff said: “The purpose of this conference is to highlight the work that is being done by the NDF and its ecosystem of 12 affiliated funds and banks to support the Saudi economic diversification in line with Saudi Vision 2030, as well as to support the growth of jobs and opportunities for all Saudis.”

On the NDF’s role within the broader development ecosystem, he added: “Well, the objective of the NDF, more broadly is to support the economic objectives of Vision 2030, by helping in economic diversification, helping in the growth of new sectors, de-risk private investment into these newer sectors, so that we can ensure that there is sufficient amount of capital coming in, to support the diversification, and ensure that the kind of growth that we are seeing in the country is sustainable and resilient over time.”

The governor said the growth in Saudi Arabia’s non-oil sector in the past eight to nine years has been in part due to the kinds of investments that the NDF makes through its ecosystem of funds and banks and supporting entrepreneurs, SMEs, which has a large focus in Vision 2030.

Groff highlighted that the fund now measures its performance based on developmental impact, including the number of jobs created, the volume of financing directed to the private sector, and the growth rate of non-oil sector contributions.

“I think the kinds of job opportunities that we are seeing in the country today are significant. We are seeing massive growth in the tourism sector with terrific opportunities for investors in the sector,” he said.

Over the past seven years, the NDF has mobilized resources exceeding SR60 billion ($16.2 billion) annually to support the development ecosystem without requiring additional government funding.

Groff said that when NDF started, there were six funds that existed in the ecosystem at that point, and many of them had been around for up to 60 years and had capital allocated to them. 

“We consolidated that capital to the equivalent of about SR430 billion. And we used that capital to seed the work that was being done by those individuals, six original funds. But we also used it to set up six new funds. So the new funds that we have established are focused on the tourism sector, the import export bank, the SME bank, the Cultural Development Fund, and the Events Investment Fund,” he said.

“All of these new areas of the economy, we used that existing capital to set that up, and all of that together, in an annual disbursement amount of about SR60 billion, is being disbursed annually by this ecosystem of funds. Now, we haven’t received any additional capital from the central government to support those efforts,” he added.

“And that’s fine because we haven’t needed it. We have been able to function. But now we are embarking on a journey of eventually securitizing some of our portfolio, issuing bonds in the international markets. That will allow us to leverage that capital base and make even more efficient and effective use of that capital base to support the economic diversification,” said the governor.