Saturday 23 / May / 2026
Muscat: The total value of loans granted during 2025 amounted to OMR213.8 million distributed across 7,106 projects, compared to OMR234.9 million in 2024 distributed across 7,398 projects, representing an annual decrease of nearly 9 percent.
The 2026 Statistical Yearbook issued by the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI) stated that the industrial sector topped the list of beneficiary activities with a value of OMR71 million, accounting for 33.2 percent of total loans, followed by the tourism, professional and public services sector with a value of OMR66.3 million accounting for 31 percent of all loans, while the fisheries sector came in third place with with a value of OMR31.6 million, accounting for 14.8 percent of the total loans.
In contrast, the mining sector recorded a percentage jump from 0.7 percent in 2024 to 4.8 percent during 2025, with a value exceeding OMR10.3 million.
Geographically, the governorates of South Al Batinah and North Al Batinah maintained the largest share of Development Bank loans in 2025, with a percentage of 24.9 percent of the total loans amounting to OMR53.3 million distributed across 1,617 projects.
Muscat Governorate came in second place with a share of 23.5 percent and a value of OMR50.2 million distributed across 762 projects, followed by the South Sharqiyah and North Sharqiyah Governorates with a share of 16.6 percent and a value of OMR35.5 million. This was followed by Al Dakhiliyah Governorate with share of 9.3 percent and Dhofar Governorate with a share of 9 percent.
The data showed that Al Wusta Governorate witnessed remarkable growth, with the share rising from 3.6 percent in 2024 to 6.5 percent in 2025, while Al Buraimi Governorate recorded the lowest share among the governorates at 1.8 percent.
The data furtehr indicated that the total value of loans granted for housing finance increased from OMR145.1 million in 2024 to OMR151.8 million in 2025, with an annual increase rate exceeding 4.6 percent. The number of beneficiaries also increased from 3,250 to 3,277 beneficiaries.
South Al Batinah Governorate topped the list of governorates in terms of loan value with 26.6 percent and a value of OMR40.4 million distributed over 902 loans, followed by Muscat Governorate with a share of 27.5 percent and a value of OMR41.7 million spread in over 842 loans, and North Al Batinah Governorate came in third place with 14.6 percent, followed by Al Dakhiliyah Governorate with 10.6 percent, while Musandam Governorate recorded the lowest percentage at 1.2 percent of the bank’s total loans.
The data showed that most of the loans of the Oman Housing Bank in 2025 were concentrated in the category of monthly income from OMR701 to OMR1,000, which accounted for 75.8 percent of the total value of housing loans, equivalent to OMR115 million and distributed over 2456 loans. The category up to OMR400 came in second place with a percentage of 16.8 percent, while the percentage of the income category of more than OMR1,000 did not exceed 6.7 percent.
