Saudi Arabia wants to introduce women-only mobile phone shops from January as an extension to its strategy to ‘Saudise’ the telecoms sector, it has been reported.
The kingdom is already banning foreign workers from selling and maintaining mobile phones and accessories shops in a bid to provide more jobs to Saudi citizens.
Rules came into force earlier this month requiring phone shops to ensure at least 50 percent of staff are Saudi citizens. The requirement will rise to 100 percent in September.
It was reported in March that educational institutions were training 20,000 Saudi men and women in mobile phone sales and maintenance so they can take over jobs previously occupied by expat workers.
This week, Saudi Gazette said the Ministry of Labor and Social Development plans to ‘feminise’ some mobile shops from January – ensuring that some shops are run only by women and cater only to women.
The ministry’s official spokesman Khalid Abalkhail was quoted as saying: “The ministry will provide an opportunity to investors to open mobile shops for women only in shopping centers or independently.
“These shops will be operated by women and will entertain women customers. There are qualified women to work in mobile repair shops as the Technical and Vocational Training Corporation has a number of training programs for Saudis as part of Saudising the telecommunication sector.”
Abalkhail added: “Mobile shops for women is an attractive business that is catching the attention of a lot of investors.
“The number of mobile shops for women will increase as time goes by as the ministry offers financial and legislative support for the enterprise.”
He said there were already 35,000 Saudi nationals trained to work in the telecoms sector.
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