SME Digital has officially introduced a new Shariah-compliant asset financing product designed to ease long-standing financial constraints faced by Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) across the Maldives, with particular significance for businesses serving the resort and wider tourism value chain. Structured under Islamic Shariah principles, the facility targets existing enterprises in all sectors, enabling them to invest in productivity-enhancing assets such as machinery, key equipment and engineering works related to commercial road and marine vehicles that are essential for resort logistics, guest transfers, supply runs and support services.
Under this dedicated financing window, eligible businesses can access funds ranging from USD 6,485 up to USD 324,254. To make the product accessible for smaller operators, SME Digital has confirmed that financing up to USD 64,850 will be available entirely without collateral, making it especially attractive for guesthouse operators, dive and watersports centres, marina services, and small contractors working with resorts that often struggle to secure traditional asset-backed financing. This framework allows enterprises to modernise their core infrastructure such as laundry, kitchen, cold storage, desalination, power generation, transport vessels and ground-handling vehicles, without the heavy upfront capital burden that typically slows expansion in resort-focused operations.
The repayment structure has been tailored to match the growth cycles of MSMEs. For collateral-free facilities, the product offers a seven-year tenure, including a six-month grace period before repayment begins, giving businesses time to deploy new assets and generate revenue. Where financing is secured with a mortgage, the repayment period extends to 10 years with a 12-month grace period, offering even greater breathing space for larger investments, such as high-capacity marine vessels or specialised engineering equipment required by resort infrastructure and supply contracts. The scheme is positioned as soft financing, featuring annual profit rates set competitively between nine percent and 10.5 percent, aligning affordability with long-term investment horizons.
SME Digital CEO Badruddeen Hassan stated that the new product is a strategic intervention aimed at supporting the national economy and tackling core business challenges. He noted that financial difficulties in purchasing goods have been a significant obstacle to growth, particularly for enterprises that need to keep pace with the evolving standards of the resort sector. By easing access to asset financing, the bank expects businesses to upgrade to modern machinery and equipment, strengthen service reliability and open doors to new local and international markets.
With the Maldivian economy heavily driven by tourism, the product is expected to play a key enabling role for resort supply chains and island-based service providers, supporting more efficient logistics, higher quality hospitality services and better-integrated support operations across atolls. SME Digital anticipates that this flexible, Shariah-compliant solution will allow MSMEs to swiftly expand their operational capacity, generate higher value from existing resort partnerships and contribute to more sustainable, broad-based economic growth. Applications for the new financing facility are now open through the dedicated online portal available on the SME Digital website at www.smedigital.mv
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