Local content certificate in Saudi Arabia: what it is and how to get it

Red Dragon Office·Updated 2026-10-10

If you want to sell to Saudi government entities or work on large public projects, you will hear one term again and again: local content. The Local Content and Government Procurement Authority (LCGPA) issues certificates that state how much of a company's spending contributes to the Saudi economy.

What the certificate shows

The certificate states your company's local content score for a fiscal year. It is issued based on your company's disclosure and the report of an audit firm approved by the authority, and its validity is linked to the fiscal year it covers.

What goes into the score

• People: salaries and benefits, with Saudi employees contributing more
• Goods and services: what you buy from local suppliers versus imports
• Assets: depreciation of assets located in the Kingdom
• Capability building: training and development of Saudi staff, and in some cases research and development

The process in brief

• Confirm which certificate and score you need
• Collect financial, payroll, supplier and asset data for the fiscal year
• Prepare the local content calculation in the authority's format
• Have it reviewed by an approved audit firm
• Submit through the authority's platform and follow up until issuance

Common pitfall: supplier data. If your accounting system does not record whether a supplier is local, start tagging suppliers now; it makes next year's certificate much easier and often raises the score.

How to raise your score

• Localise suppliers for recurring purchases
• Hire and train Saudi talent in core roles
• Invest in local assets and facilities
• Plan these changes at the start of the fiscal year, not at the end

RDO has hands-on experience preparing local content certificates: we organise the data with your finance team, coordinate the audit and follow up until issuance, then help you plan improvements.

Where the certificate is used in government procurement

Most government tenders in Saudi Arabia are published and managed through Etimad, the government procurement platform. Local content requirements are set by the procuring entity and the applicable regulations, so the role of the certificate varies from one tender to another. In practice, buyers typically look at local content in several ways:

• Minimum local content requirements written into specific tenders or contracts
• Price preference mechanisms that can favour national products and local content in the financial evaluation
• The mandatory list of national products that government entities are expected to buy locally where available
• Evaluation criteria on large projects, state-linked companies and giga-projects, which often ask for local content plans as well as certificates

Because the rules depend on the tender, read the conditions booklet carefully and confirm exactly which document is requested: a company-level certificate, a baseline, a product-related document or a commitment plan. When in doubt, raise the question with the procuring entity through the official enquiry channel before the deadline. If you work in construction, our contracting sector guide explains how this fits into project bidding.

Document and data checklist

The calculation is only as strong as the data behind it. Before the audit starts, it helps to have the following ready for the fiscal year in question:

• Financial statements and the trial balance for the year being certified
• Commercial registration, VAT registration and the company's basic legal documents
• Payroll records showing Saudi and non-Saudi employees, consistent with GOSI and Qiwa data
• A supplier list with amounts paid and whether each supplier is established in Saudi Arabia
• A fixed asset register showing the location and depreciation of assets inside the Kingdom
• Training records, programmes and invoices for the development of Saudi staff
• Evidence of research and development activity carried out in the Kingdom, where relevant

If some of this information sits in different systems or with different departments, appoint one coordinator on your side. Consistency between finance, HR and procurement data is what auditors check most closely.

What affects the timeline

There is no single processing time that applies to every company. The overall timeline usually depends on:

• Whether your financial figures for the year are final
• How clean and well organised your payroll, supplier and asset data are
• The availability and workload of the approved audit firm you appoint
• Queries raised during the review and how quickly your team answers them
• Requirements and system updates on the authority's platform

If a tender deadline is approaching, start early. A certificate cannot usually be produced overnight, and rushed data often leads to a lower score than the company actually deserves.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Treating every supplier with a Saudi address as local without checking how the authority classifies it
• Payroll figures that do not match GOSI records or the financial statements
• Waiting until a tender is announced before starting, then missing the submission deadline
• Overlooking training spend because it was booked under general expenses
• Assuming last year's score will repeat automatically after changes in staffing or suppliers

Practical tip: set up a simple monthly routine in which finance tags new suppliers, HR confirms headcount and the Saudi ratio, and the asset register is updated. This turns the annual certificate into a review exercise rather than a data hunt.

After the certificate is issued

Issuance is not the end of the process. The certificate covers a specific fiscal year, so companies that bid regularly should plan the next one before the current one expires. Many businesses also find that the exercise reveals practical improvements:

• Keep a copy of the calculation, the audit report and the supporting data for future reviews
• Track Saudization (Nitaqat) alongside your local content score, since both rely on the same payroll data
• Review supplier contracts at renewal and consider qualified local alternatives
• Build local content commitments into new projects and budgets from the start

Local content is a central part of Vision 2030, which aims to grow domestic industry, create jobs for Saudis and keep more spending inside the economy. Companies that treat it as a long-term strategy rather than a one-off document tend to be better positioned in public procurement.

How RDO supports the process

RDO works with your finance and HR teams to organise the data, prepares the file in the authority's format, coordinates with the approved audit firm and follows up on the platform until issuance. We can also review a tender's local content conditions with you and plan improvements for the next fiscal year. Requirements are set by LCGPA and may change, so we always work from the current rules. Learn more on our local content certificate service page.

Frequently asked questions