The finance and insurance sectors in Saudi Arabia will move toward implementing total Saudization with the hiring of Saudi nationals in as many as 91,000 jobs that are currently occupied by non-Saudis, according to a report from the local Okaz/Saudi Gazette.
According to the Saudi Gazette, the percentage of non-Saudis working in financial and insurance activities accounts for 0.9 percent of the total expatriate workforce. There are currently just over 10 million male and female foreign workers in the Kingdom.
Saudization, or Nitaqat, is an ongoing program that aims to boost the employment of Saudi nationals in jobs, replacing foreign workers. A key measure of progress is the “Saudization rate” — the percentage of workers who are Saudi nationals in a given sector. That figure is rising slowly across the entire private sector. The figure stood at 22.75 percent in the first quarter of 2021 (121,000 Saudis entered the private sector), compared to 20.37 percent during the same period last year.
The Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) has signed an MOU agreement with other government entities to increase the number of locals in the financial sector, according to Arab News.
“This MoU aims to increase localization, provide human competencies capable of meeting the requirements of the financial sector, and create more than 203,000 jobs in the sector,” independent economist Fadhel Al Buainain told Arab News.
