KUALA LUMPUR: 10 February 2025 – Small Medium Enterprise Development Bank Malaysia Berhad (“SME Bank”) has successfully facilitated approximately RM3.6 billion in approved financing for the Financial Year 2024 (“FY2024”), a 35.1% increase from 2023. This funding has been channelled to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (“MSMEs”) categorised as unserved and underserved across key strategic sectors including Bumiputera, Technology & Digital Adoption, Climate related, Halal & Tourism, in line with Bank Negara Malaysia’s Performance Measure Framework (“PMF”) which places emphasis on Development Financial Institutions (“DFIs”) to promote greater developmental impact
Datuk Dr. Mohammad Hardee Ibrahim, Acting Group President/Chief Executive Officer of SME Bank said, “Aligning with the MADANI Government’s aspirations, we continue to drive high-impact growth initiatives. As a DFI wholly-owned by the Ministry of Finance and supervised by Ministry of Entrepreneur and Cooperatives Development (“MECD”), we believe in providing financing and beyond financing support to MSMEs at every stage of their growth journey – from Asnaf entrepreneurs taking their first steps to thriving exporters expanding into global markets. We are proud to be the sole DFI providing financial support with structured capability-building programmes that ensure long-term business resilience. This milestone reflects our commitment to mobilising the RM1.7 billion allocation from National Budget 2024 targeting MSMEs
The Bank, via our subsidiary, Centre for Entrepreneur Development and Research (“CEDAR”) has positively impacted close to 3,400 entrepreneurs in 2024 through our capacity and capability programmes. We successfully expanded our global footprint with CEDAR being appointed as the ASEAN Centre of Excellence (“COE”) for MSMEs in Green Transition, which has been shortlisted as one of the Priority Economics Deliverables (“PED”) for Malaysia ASEAN Chairmanship in 2025. CEDAR also facilitated Cross-Border Trade and Investment Workshop for ASEAN and Hong Kong Businesses in 2024, signalling SME Bank’s growing footprint internationally. Driven by these milestones, we are honoured to be entrusted by the Government with a RM2 million capacity building allocation announced in the National Budget 2025, which is to be mobilised via CEDAR for highly developmental segment,” said Datuk Dr. Hardee
Anchored by the PMF indicators, SME Bank’s performance in 2024 reflects its mandate to serve the unserved and underserved segments through other financing programmes for entrepreneurs involved in Tourism and Construction, in addition to other key strategic sectors, which include outreach and engagement sessions structured coaching as well as specialised advisory services – benefiting close to 18,000 entrepreneurs. The Bank’s strategic initiatives have also contributed to a positive spillover into the economy with over 100,000 total expected jobs created and sustained
The performance in 2024 is a testament to SME Bank’s proactive approach in affirming its developmental mandate. The Bank’s initiatives comprised various high-impact strategic initiatives aimed at providing financing and beyond financing support for the MSME community. The Program Pembangunan Keusahawan Halal has benefitted over 130 participants since its inception in 2023, whilst the Program Pembangunan Vendor has onboarded 106 vendors with over RM13.6 million amount approved since its inception in 2022.
As of 2023, the Program Pembangunan Vendor has seen an increase in revenue by 17.5% to RM204 million. Meanwhile, as of December 2024, the Business Exports Programme, a structured intervention programme curated by MECD has onboarded 83 companies, facilitating over RM192 million in total export sales across key global markets such as Southeast Asia, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and the United States of America
In support of growing SMEs to expand their footprint internationally, the Bank’s signature business matching programme, SME Bank XCESS has facilitated international industry players to handpick Malaysian SMEs to venture into the export markets. In addition, the SME Bank iTEKAD ISHRAF by BNM proactively supports the Government’s aspirations in empowering the B40 community, specifically the Asnaf entrepreneurs. The SME Bank iTEKAD ISHRAF, which received approximately RM5 million crowd-in funds from strategic partners recorded an increase in the number of participants from 20 participants for ISHRAF 1.0 within one state and 79 participants for ISHRAF 2.0 across six states to 400 participants nationwide.
In 2025, the Government continues to entrust SME Bank to empower the growth of MSMEs with existing programmes as mandated in the National Budget 2025. The Bank will extend its financing and beyond financing support with emphasis on financial inclusion to MSMEs across key strategic sectors such as the Bumiputera, Technology, Environmental, Social and Governance (“ESG”), Halal and Tourism segments. These strategic priorities are intended to support the country’s economic growth, amplifying the positive momentum achieved by the Bank in 2024 and beyond
