Dubai: The Cabinet Decision to broaden the list of businesses subject to Emiratisation targets has been put into action by the UAE Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation (MoHRE). Under this decision, over 12,000 businesses with 20–49 employees must hire one UAE citizen at minimum in 2024 and another in 2025.
More than 12,000 businesses were recently informed by the Ministry through its digital system to abide by the decision, giving them enough time to reach their necessary goals.
The targeted companies operate across 14 specific key economic activities: Information and communications; finance and insurance; real estate; professional and technical activities; administrative and support services; education; healthcare and social work; arts and entertainment; mining and quarrying; transformative industries; construction; wholesale and retail; transportation and warehousing; and accommodation and hospitality – all of which are sectors that are currently undergoing rapid growth and have the capacity to provide jobs and a suitable working environment.
MoHRE issued a statement, calling on companies subject to the decision to “quickly meet their monetization targets and avoid delaying it until the end of the year.”
The Ministry emphasized that, “It is crucial that targeted companies register to the Nafis platform in order to benefit from the support the program provides in terms of supplying the private sector with qualified Emirati professionals capable of efficiently working in various targeted economic sectors, along with other advantages they can benefit from.”
In addition, MoHRE stated that it will keep hosting training sessions to advise decision-making companies on how to take advantage of the Nafis platform’s support and what steps to take in order to meet their targets.
The decision includes imposing annual financial contributions on companies that do not meet their required targets, amounting to $26,112 (AED96,000) for each UAE citizen not appointed in 2024, which will be collected starting January 2025. Meanwhile, financial contributions of $29,232 (AED108,000) will be imposed for failure to meet 2025 targets, to be collected in January 2026. Companies will be allowed to pay their contributions in installment plans, in agreement with MoHRE.
The decision to apply Emiratisation to companies with 20–49 employees is implemented in tandem with the continuous Emiratization targets for companies with 50 or more employees. These companies are mandated to attain a 2 percent annual growth in the Emiratisation of their skilled jobs.