The negative impact on businesses due to the COVID-19 pandemic took many forms, one of which being the lack of skills and knowledge of traditional Small & Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to adapt to the changing social and market conditions. Taking into account the density of traditional SMEs in the Omani market, a digitization initiative was warranted. 

 

Raqmana was a digitization initiative introduced by the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority implemented by AL JABR in partnership with Google Developers Group, through a 3 month training program that aimed to enable the digital transformation of 25 small and medium sized businesses entirely, or components of their businesses that include:

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• Finance and Accounting

• Human Resource and Operations

• Marketing

• Project Management

 

The program focused on accelerating the digital transformation process by innovating new work mechanisms relative to the products & services provided by the SMEs as well as business model development to adapt to market fluctuations, thus enabling the firms to be responsive, agile, and dynamic. The program targeted SMEs that fell within the main sectors to be developed in the 10th five year plan of Oman Vision 2040. These sectors were limited to:

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• Agriculture & Fisheries

• Manufacturing

• Tourism

• Transport & Logistics