SMEs Borrow $300m

Banks gave 73.93 trillion rials ($302 million) in loans to 2,722 small and medium-sized businesses plus to pending business projects with physical progress above 60% in the first three quarters of the current Iranian fiscal year (March 21-Dec 20, 2020).
Data from the Ministry of Industries, Mining and Trade shows more than 11,000 SMEs applied for financial aid from banks in the said period and 6,530 requests were accepted. 
SMEs in Alborz Province, 40 km west of Tehran, accounted for the largest portion of the loan -- 12.997 trillion rials ($53 million) was paid to 487 applicants. Semnan Province was next with 12.995 trillion rials ($53m) given to 89 businesses followed by Golestan Province where 149 applicants got 6.94 trillion rials ($28.3m) in the three months. 
The ministry said 43.25 trillion rials ($176m) was paid to meet SMEs' working capital needs.  Loans to Sistan-Baluchestan and Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad -- two less-privileged provinces -- was zero.   
SMEs constitute 92% of Iran’s 85,000 manufactures, 52% of the total industrial units and 45% of industrial jobs. 
According to Iran’s Small Industries and Industrial Parks Organization, SMEs are companies with 100 workers or less, and 50 workers or less, are considered medium- and small-sized companies.
SMEs in industrial estates exported goods worth $2.4 billion in the last fiscal year that ended in March 2020, accounting for 5.8% of the total non-oil exports ($41.37 billion).
Though not much in the spotlight, SMEs have forever played an undeniable role in Iran’s economy, outmaneuvering their large peers, employing a large part of the workforce, are generally entrepreneurial, and underpin innovation conspicuous by its absence.