Saudi notarial offices carry out 3.5mn operations in 12 months

Saudi Gazette report

RIYADH — In the past 12 months, Saudi notarial offices have carried out 3.5 million operations, including 2 million powers of attorney (PoAs) and acknowledgments, and about a million property notarizations.

Clients can now get low-risk electronic PoAs issued through the online portal of the Saudi Ministry of Justice (www.moj.gov.sa), or enter the PoA data on the portal then visit a notarial office for certification.

Mobile notarial services are also made available to clients who are unable to visit notarial offices. They may also benefit from the services of private notaries listed at www.mwathiq.sa.

As for notarial statistics, the Riyadh region tops the list for the highest number of notarial operations, amounting to about 1.5 million; followed by Makkah with 575,000, and the Eastern region with 423,000 operations.

Justice Minister Waleed Al-Sama'ani had earlier launched a new digitization initiative for notarization work, providing several e-services that dispense with paperwork and spare clients the need to visit the ministry’s premises for low-risk PoAs.