Saudization and Nitaqat in Saudi Arabia
Saudization is the legal requirement to employ a minimum share of Saudi nationals. The Nitaqat Mutawar programme ranks every company in one of five bands from Platinum to Red, using a target that depends on its economic activity and size and rises each year to 2028. Red and Low Green companies lose access to new visas and other services, and on top of Nitaqat, separate decisions set quotas of 30% to 100% for named professions.
Saudization and Nitaqat in Saudi Arabia
- Saudization rate against Nitaqat minimums
- Profession quotas checked before placement
- Wages that count Saudi hires fully
Saudization of project management roles to rise to 70% from February 2027
What happened
On 16 August 2026 the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development, with the Ministry of Municipalities and Housing, announced a 70% Saudization rate for project management professions in the private sector. It covers Project Management Manager, Engineer and Specialist roles and takes effect on 14 February 2027.
What it means for you
If your Saudi company employs three or more people in these roles, at least 70% of them must be Saudi nationals from 14 February 2027. The quota is measured at company level, separately from your Nitaqat band.
Dates to know
- 14 February 202770% project management quota takes effect
Source: Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development. We check this page every week. Last checked .
Saudization (in Arabic, tawteen, localisation) is the policy of raising the share of Saudi nationals in private sector jobs. It has two layers. The first is Nitaqat, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development's programme, launched in 2011 and rebuilt as Nitaqat Mutawar (the developed Nitaqat) in 2021, which rates every company on its overall Saudization rate. The rate is the sum of the averages of Saudi workers across the company's establishments divided by the sum of the averages of Saudi and expatriate workers, multiplied by 100; for this purpose an expatriate is a worker who is not a citizen of a Gulf Cooperation Council state. The second layer is profession-level localisation: decisions that reserve named occupations for Saudis or require a minimum Saudi share in them, usually for companies with a set number of workers in those roles. The Labor Law supports both, allowing the Ministry to refuse to renew work permits for an employer that breaches its job nationalisation standards (amended Article 35).
How does a Nitaqat band get calculated?
For each band the Ministry sets a minimum Saudization rate using the formula: minimum = m × ln(total workers) + c, where m and c are fixed values for each economic activity, band and year. Your company's actual rate is then compared with those minimums to place it in Platinum, High Green, Medium Green, Low Green or Red.
The 2026 procedural guide lists the values for every activity, with separate constants for 2026, 2027 and 2028, and for many activities the constant rises by one to five points each year. Because the formula uses the natural logarithm of headcount, the required rate climbs slowly as a company grows rather than jumping at fixed size brackets. A company below the Low Green minimum is Red.
What does that mean in numbers for a typical services company?
For the business services activity in 2026, the Low Green minimum is 1.03 × ln(workers) + 33.78. For a company with 20 workers that works out at about 36.9% Saudis, and at about 37.8% for 50 workers (our arithmetic from the published values).
The same activity's 2026 values are 1.03 and 42.62 for Medium Green, 2.19 and 43.62 for High Green, and 2.19 and 54.82 for Platinum. The Low Green constant rises to 36.78 in 2027 and 39.78 in 2028. IT solutions companies start lower in 2026 (2.19 and 26.76 for Low Green) and also rise each year. Activities differ widely: women's goods and mobile phone retail require over 80%, while construction and cleaning contracting start below 15%. Qiwa shows a company's live band.
What happens in a Red or Low Green band?
A Red company cannot request new visas, issue new work permits for expatriates, renew existing expatriates' work permits, change their professions or take transfers of expatriate workers. A Low Green company cannot request new visas or change expatriates' professions.
Low Green companies can still renew expatriate work permits where the worker's residence permit has no more than six months left at renewal. Medium Green, High Green and Platinum companies can request visas for available professions, change expatriates' professions, renew work permits on the same condition and take service transfers from companies in any band. In all of these bands, Low Green included, new Saudi hires count immediately towards the Nitaqat rate.
How are Saudi employees counted?
Not every Saudi employee counts in full. A ministerial decision of November 2020 set monthly wage thresholds below which a Saudi counts as half a worker or not at all. Check the current thresholds in Qiwa before relying on a headcount.
Since 15 April 2026 a Saudi employee only counts if their contract is documented on Qiwa.
Which professions have their own Saudization quotas?
Several decisions in 2026 set profession-level quotas that apply regardless of the Nitaqat band. They include 100% Saudization for 69 additional administrative support professions (from 5 April 2026, companies with one or more such workers), 70% for 12 procurement professions (from 31 May 2026, three or more workers) and 30% for 46 engineering professions (from 30 June 2026, five or more workers).
Marketing and sales roles each move to 60% for companies with three or more such workers under two decisions dated 19 January 2026, applied three months after they were announced; marketing roles also carry a minimum monthly wage of SAR 5,500. Project management roles move to 70% from 14 February 2027. The administrative support list covers secretarial, clerical, translation, data entry and administrative support titles. Each decision has a procedural guide on the Ministry's website with the full list of job titles, which follow the Saudi occupational classification.
What is changing in the 2026 to 2028 phase?
On 19 February 2026 the Ministry announced a new three-year phase of Nitaqat Mutawar starting in 2026, aimed at localising more than 340,000 additional private sector jobs for Saudi men and women.
The Ministry says the targets were set after sector-by-sector studies of the work involved and market conditions. In practice, the new phase appears as the year-by-year constants in the 2026 procedural guide, so a company that is Low Green today can fall to Red in 2027 without changing its headcount.
Key figures
| Detail | Value |
|---|---|
| Nitaqat bands | Five bands: Platinum, High Green, Medium Green, Low Green and Red. (source) |
| Band formula | Minimum rate for each band = m × ln(total workers) + c, with m and c set per economic activity, band and year (2026, 2027, 2028). (source) |
| Saudization rate | Sum of averages of Saudi workers ÷ (sum of averages of Saudi workers + sum of averages of expatriate workers) × 100; expatriate means a non-GCC national. (source) |
| Business services, 2026 | Low Green 1.03 and 33.78; Medium Green 1.03 and 42.62; High Green 2.19 and 43.62; Platinum 2.19 and 54.82 (m and c). Low Green constant rises to 36.78 in 2027 and 39.78 in 2028. (source) |
| Red band | No profession changes, no transfers in, no new visas, no new expatriate work permits and no renewal of existing expatriate work permits. (source) |
| New phase | Announced 19 February 2026: three years from 2026, aiming to localise more than 340,000 additional private sector jobs. (source) |
| Qiwa contracts | From 15 April 2026, Saudization rates are calculated from employment contracts documented electronically on Qiwa. (source) |
| Administrative support | 100% Saudization for 69 additional professions from 5 April 2026, for establishments with one or more workers in the covered professions. (source) |
| Procurement | 70% from 31 May 2026 across 12 professions, for establishments with three or more workers in them. (source) |
| Engineering | 30% from 30 June 2026 across 46 professions, for establishments with five or more workers in them; Saudi Council of Engineers accreditation required. (source) |
| Marketing and sales | 60% each for establishments with three or more workers in the roles, under decisions dated 19 January 2026 and applied three months after announcement; marketing roles have a SAR 5,500 minimum monthly wage. (source) |
| Project management | 70% from 14 February 2027 for establishments with three or more workers in project management roles, measured at company level. (source) |
Frequently asked questions
Does Nitaqat apply to a company with only a few employees in Saudi Arabia?
The band is calculated on the company's total workforce, and several profession decisions apply from very small numbers: the administrative support quota applies to establishments with even one worker in a covered profession. Check the company's position on Qiwa before hiring.
Do GCC nationals count as expatriates under Nitaqat?
No. The 2026 procedural guide defines expatriate labour as workers who are not citizens of Gulf Cooperation Council states.
Can a Red band company keep its existing expatriate staff?
It cannot renew their work permits, change their professions or take transfers of new expatriates, so in practice its expatriate workforce cannot be sustained while it stays in Red.
Is the Nitaqat band the same as a profession quota?
No. The band reflects the whole company's Saudization rate. Profession quotas, such as 70% for procurement or 30% for engineering, apply separately to the workers in those roles.
Each of the six Gulf states writes its own labour law, its own end-of-service rules and its own quota for hiring citizens. When Teamed is your legal employer, we apply the right rules for the country each person works in and update your contracts, policies and payroll as the law changes, so you never have to read a statute to stay compliant.
