Amadou Boubacar, senior minister, minister of economic planning, land management and community development, and Khaled Al-Aboodi, CEO and General Manager of the Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD), the private sector arm of the Islamic Development Bank Group (IDB), signed an agreement to setup a Sukuk program in an aggregate principal amount of CFA 150.0 billion.

This program will be implemented during 2015-2020 for financing developmental projects.

The sukuk program will be implemented in two equal phases of CFA 75.0 billion.

ICD shall be the transaction adviser and global coordinator in the inaugural CFA 75.0 billion (or equivalent) sukuk offering for the government of Niger.

ICD would assist the government of Niger in coordinating with the relevant advisers, consultants, agents and officers of the government of Niger and the mandated lead managers and overseeing the sukuk offering in general.

ICD is mandated to support the economic development of its member countries through provision of finance and advisory services to private sector enterprises and governments in accordance with the principles of Sharia.

Khaled Al-Aboodi, CEO of the ICD, said: “The ICD will do its best to see that the issuance is successful and hopes this will contribute to transform the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) Capital Market“.

Amadou Boubacar said: “This sukuk program is the first of its kind in Niger. We already have a number projects that we would like to finance through this sukuk issuance”.