ICD is Ready to Support Member Countries to Address the Impact of COVID-19

During these unprecedented times, ICD stands ready and well-equipped to support its 55 member countries or their combat with COVID-19. Today, ICD possesses strong financial fundamentals in terms of liquidity, portfolio diversification, and shareholder support. Specifically, we have around $1.3Billion of liquid assets, which cumulatively constitutes more than half of our total assets. As far as the capital adequacy ratio is concerned, ICD stands above the required threshold of 35%. In terms of portfolio diversification, ICD holds well-balanced business lines, as, over the last few years, the green-field equity portfolio has been diluted to constitute less than 10% share in ICD’s total assets. Going forward, ICD aims at focusing on higher-quality equity transactions (i.e. brownfields) rather than greenfield equity.
Operation wise, we have made significant strides in member countries during the last 20 years, with gross cumulative approval of $6.5Billion and total disbursement of $3.4billion by reaching out to 50 member countries with over 480 projects. Very recently, we have also established clear strategic objectives for the next 10 years with the following operational and developmental goals: a) Creating or sustaining 550,000 jobs; b) Reaching 95,000 MSMEs with financial and/or technical assistance, and c) Providing access to Islamic finance for 1,000,000 people.

COVID-19 and SDGs Agenda of ICD The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the drawbacks of global interdependency and the fragility of our planet. On the development front, this outbreak is testing our ability to continue with the implementation of the SDG agenda, posing a real risk in achieving targets. Not only has the coronavirus exposed the limitations of various countries' healthcare systems (SDG3), but it has already unleashed economic damage (SDG8) to many economies across the globe. In addition, nationwide school closures in over 150 countries in the world have already disrupted learning (SDG4). Unless measures are taken to protect the vulnerable and mitigate the pandemic’s impact across the food system, we also risk a looming food crisis (SDG2).

During the COVID-19 outbreak, we are even more committed to the SDGs, and keep our focus on implementing long-term strategies that empower the private sector to create a scalable impact. We aim to enhance our development effectiveness by considering 10 SDGs through the ‘theory of change’ – Invest, Engage, and Impact.
This means that ICD will target SDGs, both directly and indirectly, through investments in the real economy. We will enable, and continue to improve on creating conducive
business environments, facilitating interaction and engagement between key stakeholders, and eventually aim at achieving an indirect impact on SDGs.

COVID-19 and ICD Response
In order to help our member countries in their fight with COVID-19, we have immediately taken the following business actions: • Urgent Financing Package: to allocate $250Million from ICD resources towards the activities such as 1) Line of Finance to address immediate needs of MSMEs via our own resources and through utilizing 110+ FIs in the connect platform and beyond, 2) Term Financing /Infrastructure financing directly for healthcare, energy and agri-business sectors, 3) Equity Investment and
Collaboration to support our investee companies and the overall financial sector in member countries.
• Client Responsiveness: to be flexible in accommodating the rescheduling requirements of some of our clients, with which we have been working for several years.
• New Products/Platforms: to introduce new products/mechanisms for addressing the requirements of our member countries.
• Fast Track Processes: to adopt a fast track investment approach to respond to member country requirements in an agile manner.