'NITAQAT'

'NITAQAT' is a unique program designed by Ministry of Labor to boost Saudization in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Six years ago, in Bahrain GCC Summit, a suggestion put forwarded by the members in regard to end service of the expatriate employees who completed six years in GCC country. But that discussion did not come to a culmination and still a discussion matter. Still GCC countries are trying to reduce the dependence of foreign employees and try to intensify to finding out their own citizen's employment opportunities. The new NITAQAT program is the reflection and outcome of the voice of agitated and unemployed youth in the Kingdom. 

In regard to Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, as per the Ministry, 500,000 unemployed Saudi nationals in the country right away. At the same time 8,000,000 foreign nationals are working in the Kingdom now. More than 6,000,000 foreign employees are working in the private sector. These all expatriates are sending 26.6 billion Saudi Riyals to their home countries. 

As per Ministry of labor, NITAQAT is designed to get more opportunities for Saudi nationals in the private sector. It is introduced to evaluate private companies based on their achieved percentage of Saudization. Apart from the Saudization boosting, the Ministry claimed NITAQAT program includes many other short term and long term objectives like accelerate women employment sector, training for the employment seekers, minimum wage, protection of rights of employees etc. As per the Ministry of labor, the NITAQAT program offer greater mobility to expatriates if they are working in the companies which are comes under Red and Yellow companies. Under NITAQAT, they can free to move to Green category companies without the approval and permission of the company.

As per NITAQAT, the business sectors are coloured as four, i.e., Red, Yellow, Green, And Excellent. The companies working in the respective field will come under these colouring zones depend upon the Saudization. If any company does not have the required number of Saudi employees, it will fall in to the RED category. 

Under the NITAQAT program, private firms will be classified into Green, Yellow, Red and Excellent categories, according to its performance in the Saudization of jobs. Companies with high Saudization rates will come under the GREEN category, while those who fail to achieve the required rates or refuse to employ Saudis will be included in the YELLOW and RED categories respectively. The RED companies will not be allowed to renew work visas for their foreign employees. YELLOW companies can be renewed work visas for up to six years for each foreign employee.

'Excellent' companies will get many benefits and strong incentives from the Ministry of labour. At the same time more than 40 % of the companies will be wiped off from the private sector due to strict implementation of NITAQAT program. 

The criterion for the classification of these sectors are different. When we examine these sector classifications, we can understand that, the classification is depends upon the number of jobseekers and popularity of the respective field. 

For example, in the sector of security guards, if any company has more than 10 employees and less than 50 employees, they should achieve 75-84% Saudization to elevate to the Green sector. At the same time companies working in the sector of Road Transportation of Goods within Cities, with more than 10 employees and less than 50 employees will come to the Green sector by 10-19% of Saudization. 

There are 41 classifications of employment sectors. Market divisions are 164 (41 x 4). Among these 41 sector classifications, the companies are again classified as 5 divisions on the basis of the number of the employees. i.e. Employees between 1-10, 10-49, 50-499, 500-2999 and 3000 above (SMALL, MEDIUM, LARGE & BIG/GIANT). Employees 1- 10 will not come under the Nitaqat program. 

Your sector will come to the classification sector number 10 given below. If you have employees less than 10 you will not come under this NITAQAT program. If the numbers of employees are 10-49, then you have to achieve minimum 5 - 24% of Saudization to enter in to the Green category. If you have employees more than 50 and less than 499, then your Saudization percentage will be 6-27%. If number of employees in between 500 – 2999, then your Saudization percentage will be 7-30%. If you have more than 3000 employees, then it will be 8 – 30 %.