Khady Seye, and Miguel Kosasih, Country Managers for Senegal and Indonesia respectively, attended the Investing in African Mining Indaba 2025 which was held in Cape Town, South Africa in early February 2025. The theme of the Indaba was ‘Future-Proofing African Mining Today’ and highlighted the need for mining organisations to build resilience and operational endurance that not only drive profitability but also create value across the entire mining ecosystem.

The Indaba attracted participants from all over the continent and beyond. HE Khalid Saleh Al-Mudaifer, Saudi Arabia’s Vice-Minister for Mining Affairs, at the Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources, gave a Leader Spotlight on ‘New Mineral Age Opportunities for Supply Nations to Drive Economic Growth.’

It was an incredible opportunity for ICIEC to be a part of these key events and engage with major players in the mining sector across the continent, says Khady Seye.

“We had highly productive meetings with mining companies, financial institutions, and insurance brokers to showcase our risk mitigation solutions. With our dual ratings from Moody’s and S&P, ICIEC is positioning itself as the partner of choice in the mining sector, which plays such a crucial role for our member countries,” added Ms Seye.

Bessem Soua, ICIEC’s Division Manager for Sub-Saharan Africa and Europe, attended the ExCred International 2025 conference in London, in which he also participated in a High-Level Panel Discussion.

The conference brings together the insurance, export credit agencies, multilateral insurers, banking institutions and other stakeholders to discuss global and regional macro-economic, financial and trade indicators, and the emerging manifold risks and their mitigation associated with these developments.

Key insights in Bessem Soua’s remarks included:

A. Africa’s Economic Landscape: Challenges, Opportunities, and Market Trends.

B. ICIEC’s Role in Trade and Investment: How our Solutions Drive Resilience.

C. Collaboration between multilaterals and the private sector: Strengthening partnerships through blended guarantees, strategic cooperation with regional DFIs, and mobilization of institutional investors to scale impact and unlock sustainable financing solutions.

A delegation headed by Dr. Khalid Khalafalla, CEO of ICIEC, and including Mr. Samer Elesawi, Head of IsDB Kuala Lumpur Centre of Excellence, and Mr. Mohd Ferdaus Mohd Khasim, Reinsurance Specialist, met with the senior management of EXIM Bank Malaysia during their visit to the member country in February 2025 to Malaysia.

ICIEC plays a vital role in strengthening EXIM Bank Malaysia’s capacity by providing risk mitigation, trade facilitation, investment protection, and Islamic finance solutions. Their strategic partnership reinforces Malaysia’s position as an Islamic finance and trade hub, supporting sustainable economic growth across OIC member countries and beyond.

“ICIEC is committed to offering comprehensive solutions that address risk mitigation and trade facilitation, support foreign direct investment, and promote Islamic finance. Through continued capacity building and knowledge exchange, we look forward to deepening our collaboration with EXIM Bank Malaysia to drive impactful, long-term development,” stressed Dr Khalafalla. Discussions also focused on fostering strategic collaboration to support sustainable trade and investment growth.

ICIEC CEO, Dr. Khalid Khalafalla, hosted an engaging and productive meeting with a distinguished delegation from UNIDO, focusing on strategic partnerships to accelerate sustainable industrial development in ICIEC member countries.

This collaboration reflects ICIEC’s commitment to fostering economic growth, innovation, and prosperity in OIC member states and beyond. By leveraging our collective expertise and resources, we aim to create transformative solutions that drive regional economic integration and support industries in their sustainable growth journey— a promising step toward creating a more resilient and prosperous future.

A Senior delegation from the Ministry of Investment of Saudi Arabia (MISA) paid a fact-finding visit to ICIEC headquarters on 13 January 2025. During the visit, ICIEC senior managers gave presentations on the Corporation’s innovative insurance solutions and strategic development priorities to support incoming investments to the Kingdom.

The discussion between the Senior Ministry officials and ICIEC’s Business Development Department Director focused on collaborative opportunities to support and contribute to the Saudi Vision 2030 initiatives.

In February 2025, a group of facultative reinsurers (Lloyd’s and nonLloyd’s), together with Tysers, Turkexim Bank and Ronesans attended a business forum organized by ICIEC Reinsurance Unit in Istanbul. The guests had the opportunity to grasp ICIEC evolving portfolio in Türkiye, presented by Sis Fatma Gamze Sarioglu, Senior Country Manager, Additionally, Ms. Pinar Caliskan, Funding Director at Turk Eximbank, together with her colleagues Orhan Inci and Hatice Urkmez, provided insights into Türkiye’s strengthening economic fundamentals and overall performance. In addition, the reinsurance partners were taken by Br Lotfi Zairi, Associate Manager, Sovereign Underwriting Division to deepdive in the door-to-door underwriting process. That overview of ICIEC’s underwriting guidelines and streamlined processes was received with keen interest and appreciation and laid the groundwork for enhanced capacity building and more competitive pricing strategies for future pipelines.

Ed Cornish, Head of Credit & Political Risks (Arch Insurance): “I wanted to write you a brief note to express my thanks for all the effort you put into organising the UW trip last week… You demonstrated an impressive knowledge of the Turkish economy, and your detailed description of ICIEC’s UW processes shown a valuable light on the level of careful due diligence that is performed within the ICIEC team”.

Will-Day (Tysers): “ It was great for Reinsurers to see a window into how ICIEC operates at the underwriting end of the business, … these trips are invaluable to Reinsurers and serve to provide them with a deeper understanding of ICIEC as an organisation, ultimately giving reinsurers more comfort to following ICIEC on transactions… ultimately leading to stronger outcomes for ICIEC member countries”.

Rönesans, Deputy CEO Avni Genç and CFO Hudai Şengül shared insights into the company’s expanding project portfolio across Türkiye and other member states. These discussions underscored ICIEC’s commitment to supporting national champions and fostering new avenues for Shariah-compliant risk mitigation.

The forum was vetted by field visits to the İSKİ Water Treatment Plant in Istanbul and the Üsküdar–Ümraniye–Çekmeköy MRT line, a glimpse of tangible illustrations of ICIEC’s developmental impact. The delegation witnessed firsthand societal benefits of these insured projects. Both sites impressed the reinsurers with their technical performance and positive community outcomes.

Overall, participants praised ICIEC’s deep market knowledge and strong stakeholder relationships. Many reinsurers expressed enthusiasm for replicating this collaborative format in future missions, particularly across African member states, signaling growing international interest in ICIEC-led facultative programs.

Enhancing Growth, Trade Development and Smart Decision-making Through OBIC’s Evolving Digital Credit Information and Business Intelligence Platform

Reliable and up-to-date credit information and its responsible sharing is crucial in accelerating intra-OIC trade and investment. By providing businesses with a detailed and accurate picture of the business performance and creditworthiness of OIC entities through the OIC Business Intelligence Center (OBIC) centralized business intelligence digital platform, ICIEC is bridging the current information gap and enhancing data reliability required for supporting informed decision-making.

The 3rd Capacity-Building Programme for Users of OBIC held in Jakarta on 18-20 February 2025 and organized with the IsDB Regional Hub Indonesia, registered a robust attendance and a spate of quality and timely presentations delivered by key industry experts and professionals.

The inaugural OBIC Programme was held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia in early 2023 followed by a second one in Istanbul, Türkiye, in September 2023. Dr. Khalid Khalafalla, CEO of ICIEC, in his keynote speech on “The Role of Credit Information Sharing and Business Intelligence in Supporting Trade and Investment Decisions,” could not be more to the point.

“In today’s interconnected global economy,” he reminded, “access to accurate and reliable business intelligence is no longer a luxury, but a necessity, especially for the member states of the OIC (Organisation of Islamic Cooperation), where trade and investment flows are rapidly expanding, and accordingly, leveraging credit information has become a cornerstone of sustainable economic development.”

“I would like to take this opportunity to call upon our OIC member states to jointly support the OBIC initiative as an important and robust information-sharing platform that facilitates collecting, analyzing, and disseminating relevant credit information and business data. We strongly believe that the OBIC as a collaborative approach will strengthen intra-OIC trade and attract foreign direct investment, bolstering our economic resilience and sustainability.’’

Dr. Khalid Khalafalla, CEO of ICIEC

ICIEC, he emphasized, recognizes that digitalization and automation for development through trade and investment must be a core ongoing objective for and in partnership between the public and private sectors. “I call upon our OIC Member States to jointly support the OBIC initiative as an important and robust information-sharing platform that facilitates collecting, analyzing, and disseminating relevant credit information and business data. We strongly believe that OBIC as a collaborative approach will strengthen intra-OIC trade and attract foreign direct investment, bolstering our economic resilience and sustainability,” he added.

OBIC is an ICIEC initiative adopted in 2017 by the Standing Committee for Economic and Commercial Cooperation (COMCEC) of the OIC, to provide OIC Member States with a platform for sharing business information, compiling and coordinating data, and offering advisory services and capacity development programmes. OBIC’s four strategic pillars support OIC States in developing and enhancing their credit reporting ecosystems, building a comprehensive OIC-wide business intelligence infrastructure, developing OIC States’ capacity related to credit reporting, and catalyzing a sustainable business model for itself with the aim of allowing its users to access, gather, store, and analyze corporate data to provide valuable information and analysis on various aspects of the business environment.

The Power of Business Intelligence

In the current digital age where information flows freely and instantaneously, stressed Dr. Khalafalla to participants, the power of business intelligence becomes increasingly critical, accompanied by rapid and dynamic technological advancements that offer unprecedented opportunities to extract valuable insights and make informed decisions.

“As a result, all these factors oblige the credit information industry to undergo a significant transformation to catch up with those advancements in business intelligence and digital technologies, as digital transformation enables real-time data analytics, predictive modeling, and automation, improving the accuracy and speed of credit reporting, while the artificial intelligence and big data analytics allow financial institutions to assess creditworthiness with greater precision, reducing risks and unlocking new opportunities for borrowers,” he advised.

As users of the OBIC, he implored participants, “You are expected to play a crucial role in ensuring that this platform is utilized to its maximum potential. Engagement in this capacity-building programme will equip you with the skills and insights needed to leverage credit data for better trade and investment decisions.”

The Opening Session of the event held on 18 February 2025 included Dr. Khalafalla’s above keynote speech, and opening remarks from other key stakeholders including the IsDB Regional Hub Indonesia, IIGF, Indonesia EXIM Bank, and PT Asuransi ASEI, which set the stage for a robust and frank discourse on how to enhance capacity and collaboration in trade and investment risk management across the OIC region through the importance of information and knowledge sharing.

The Way Ahead

The event concluded on 20 February 2025 where Mr. Yerzhan Jalmukhanov delivered the closing remarks on ‘Bridging Opportunities, Strengthening Partnerships.’, where he reaffirmed the importance of partnerships, innovation, and sustainable economic growth, and extended his gratitude to all co-organizers, partners for their unwavering support, and to distinguished speakers, panelists, and participants who contributed to making the event a success.”

Looking ahead, the expanding OBIC fraternity is expectant to seeing the outcomes of the Jakarta Discourse taking shape. The hope is that the OBIC initiative becomes the driving force for advancing credit information sharing among OIC member states through a centralized platform for business intelligence, and a transformative effort towards bridging the current information gaps and enhancing data reliability required for supporting informed decision-making!

Jeddah, April 14, 2025-The Islamic Corporation for the Insurance of Investment and Export Credit (ICIEC), the Shariah-compliant multilateral insurer and member of the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) Group, is co-organising the IsDB Group Private Sector Forum as a side event at the 50^th Annual Meetings of the Board of Governors of the IsDB on 19-22 May 2025 in Algiers, People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria. This Forum will convene policymakers, private-sector leaders, and representatives from leading multilateral institutions to explore practical solutions for enhancing cross-border trade, investment flows, and regional cooperation.

The theme of the ICIEC’s High Level Panel Discussion (HLPD) is “Unlocking Trade Potential among Africa, Arab Countries, and Algeria: The Role of Multilateral Development Institutions and Global Cooperation.” The session will highlight Algeria’s strategic importance as a gateway between Africa and the Arab world, the significance of Shariah-compliant risk mitigation instruments, the latest initiatives in trade financing, infrastructure, energy, and agriculture and encourage collaboration between Public and Private sector stakeholders to facilitate Trade and Investment. Senior government officials, top-level executives from the IsDB Group, and other distinguished partners will deliver keynote speeches focusing on policies and best practices that foster sustainable and inclusive economic development.

To secure your participation at these prestigious events, please register now at: https://isdbg-psf.org/ 

Dr. Khalid Khalafalla, CEO of ICIEC said, “By gathering prominent experts and leaders, we aim to highlight the role of Shariah-compliant insurance solutions and innovative financing in driving investment, mitigating risks, and accelerating growth. We look forward to productive dialogues that will shape the future of trade and investment across Africa, the Arab world, and beyond.”

London - Bessem Soua, ICIEC’s Division Manager of Sub-Saharan Africa & Europe Region, participated in a top-level panel discussion titled “Is Africa’s Infrastructure-Led Growth Experiment Faltering?”

The event was part of the prestigious ‘Investing in Africa’ Conference organised by AFSIC in London in October 2024. The session explored critical challenges and opportunities in advancing infrastructure development across the continent, and how ICIEC’s innovative solutions can drive sustainable growth in Africa and make projects more bankable to crowd in private capital.

ICIEC is one of the most proactive multilateral insurers in Africa and remains committed to supporting projects that contribute to Africa’s infrastructure development and economic resilience.

Jeddah – ICIEC participated in the Group’s 6th Evaluation Symposium held in Jeddah, 2024.

Dr. Khalid Khalafalla, CEO, ICIEC, participated in a Fire Chat Discussion with Dr. Hiba Ahmed, Director General of the Islamic Solidarity Fund, Dr. Issa Faye, Director General of Global Practices and Partnerships, IsDB, and Dr. Sami Al Suwailam, Acting Director General, IsDBi, and the discussion was moderated by Dr. Mohammed Alyami of the Development Effectiveness Office of ICD.

“I am excited to speak at the IsDB Group Evaluation Symposium, where. we explored how innovative solutions in investment insurance and export credit can amplify our impact and drive sustainable development. We’re excited to contribute to these critical discussions on the strategic value of evaluation in decision-making, exploring how M&E can adapt to changing environments to drive greater impact,” stressed Dr. Khalafalla.

ICIEC also led a panel discussion on private sector involvement in development, highlighting adaptive evaluation strategies and the evolving role of monitoring and evaluation (M&E) in driving sustainability and impact within the private sector.