The Islamic Corporation for the Insurance of Investment and Export Credit (ICIEC), a member of the Islamic Development Bank Group (IDB), signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the National Commercial Bank (NCB) at the headquarters of the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI).

Khemais Al-Gazzah, operations director and acting CEO of ICIEC, and Adnan bin Himd, SVP, NCB, signed the deal with the support of JCCI Chairman Saleh Abdullah Kamel and under the supervision of JCCI’s Industrial committee Chairman Abdul Aziz Nasser Al-Sorayai.

The MOU provides cooperation between ICIEC and NCB in supporting small and medium enterprises (SMEs) operating in Saudi Arabia with a view to encouraging them to export and provide solutions to meet the funding problems.

Under the memorandum, ICIEC will provide insurance services by 90 percent of the credit facilities provided by banks of SMEs.

ICIEC’s CEO Abdel Rahman Tayeb Taha said: “The signing of the MOU comes within the framework of the role of ICIEC in supporting to boost development in its member countries.”

The MOU is mainly to help SMEs in the Kingdom getting financing to their nonoil exporters.

“Saudi businessmen are very active in doing business worldwide, and the financial institutions in the Kingdom are the first address that any Saudi Business can think of getting financing to export, and ICIEC is the only multilateral export credit insurance providing Shariah-compliant services, which Financial Institutions can rely on,” he added.

“This agreement is a continuation of the activity carried out by the ICIEC since its inception in 1994, in supporting of exporters, banks, and Saudi businessmen, as the volume of business insured by the corporation in the Kingdom is more than $ 4 billion,” Taha said.

“We are confident that this MOU will help to increase the size of nonoil exports to the Kingdom,” Taha added.