The Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) Group reported on November 2 that net approvals reached nearly $18 billion in the first nine months of 2026. Its chairman, Muhammad Al Jasser, told a ministerial session in Istanbul that success should be measured by the enterprises empowered, new markets opened, and jobs the group helps create, not by initiatives announced.
The bank’s release centers on his call for coordinated action to expand access to trade finance, made at the 42nd ministerial session of the Standing Committee for Economic and Commercial Cooperation of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (COMCEC), whose theme was trade financing tools for exports. The release gives no enterprise or job count, while the reports of the group’s arms give some 2025 counts and differ in what they cover. Trade ministries, OIC exporters, and providers of Islamic trade finance can check the 2025 numbers in those reports.
The IsDB release says the International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation (ITFC), the group’s trade arm, approved about $11 billion in the first nine months of 2026, including nearly $9 billion for intra-OIC trade, meaning trade between member countries. The release does not define net approvals, and approvals are not money paid out. ITFC’s May report shows $9.35 billion approved and $7.53 billion disbursed in full-year 2025.
“The true measure of our success should not be gauged by the number of initiatives we announce, but rather by the enterprises we empower, the new markets we unlock, and the jobs we help create,” Al Jasser said, according to the release. The release gives no count of the enterprises and jobs behind the 2026 total and does not say whether or when the group will publish one.
The Group’s Arms Report SME and Job Counts Differently
ICD and ICIEC publish 2025 counts of SMEs and jobs, and ITFC’s May report gives no job count. The release describes the group as combining trade financing, support for productive investments and infrastructure projects, and insurance and risk-mitigation solutions to help enterprises enter new markets.
The Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD) approved $175 million in new operations in the first nine months of 2026, according to the IsDB release. Its May report to COMCEC says that in 2025 ICD extended $661.9 million to over 2,381 SMEs and supported the creation and sustainability of about 347,216 jobs. Separately, the report counts 23,531 new jobs.
The Islamic Corporation for the Insurance of Investment and Export Credit (ICIEC) reports 5,998 SMEs and 294,106 jobs supported in 2025, up from 3,259 and 120,664 in 2024, according to its development effectiveness report. ICIEC provided insurance coverage for nearly $16 billion in business in the first nine months of 2026, including over $6 billion supporting intra-OIC trade and investment, the IsDB release says. That is coverage, not lending, and the release does not say whether it sits inside net approvals.
ITFC accounts for 44.7% of cumulative group net approvals through September, according to the IsDB Group in Brief for the third quarter of 2026. Its May report counts 144 operations in 25 countries in 2025, along with 63 trade development interventions across 37 member countries that reached 2,257 beneficiaries. The report lists those trade development programs separately from its financing approvals. Each arm’s counts are its own, may overlap, and cover 2025, not the 2026 approvals.
ITFC’s May Report Put About 69% of 2025 Approvals in Energy
ITFC’s report to the May 12-13 meeting of the COMCEC Follow-up Committee shows energy took about 69% of its 2025 approvals. The ITFC report puts energy at nearly $6.5 billion of $9.35 billion for the full year, against $4.30 billion of $7.31 billion in 2024, or about 59% by simple division.
ITFC says those energy operations have strengthened productive capacity, stabilized trade-enabling infrastructure, and supported economic growth across member countries, and that its trade solutions have sustained imports and kept industries running. It says it finances sovereign clients, financial institutions, and public and private sector companies, including SMEs. The same report cites constrained liquidity and persistent trade finance gaps in developing economies. Least developed member countries took 32% of 2025 approvals.
The 69% is ITFC only and covers 2025. The November release gives no sector split for the 2026 approvals. It reports Al Jasser calling for trade finance and guarantees to be linked with investments in transport, energy, digital infrastructure, and strategic value chains.
Approvals outside energy reached around $3.0 billion in 2025, about 30% of the total, ITFC said. ITFC’s private sector approvals were about $1.35 billion in 2025, or about 14% of the year’s total by simple division, up from about $1.10 billion in 2024. ITFC describes that as sustained annual growth in financing for private enterprises, especially SMEs.
ITFC Directs Most of Its Approvals to Intra-OIC Trade
ITFC directs most of its approvals to trade between members. Nearly $9 billion of about $11 billion in the first nine months of 2026 was for intra-OIC trade, the IsDB release says, roughly four-fifths on those rounded numbers. In full-year 2025, ITFC’s report shows $7.8 billion of $9.35 billion, about 83%. ITFC’s about $11 billion in nine months already exceeds the $9.35 billion its May report shows for all of 2025, though neither document says the two are counted on the same basis.
Vice President Yilmaz Names the SME Trade Finance Barriers
Cevdet Yilmaz, Türkiye’s vice president, named three SME barriers at the COMCEC opening session on November 2, TRT World reported. He cited insufficient collateral, high financing costs, and a lack of information. He called for stronger cooperation among banks, export credit agencies, development finance institutions, and OIC bodies, and urged countries outside the COMCEC SME Program to join. Al Jasser also stressed accessible trade finance for SMEs and effective risk-sharing, the release says.
Yilmaz also urged a framework to ease customs procedures and support digital trade among OIC members, TRT World reported. He said on June 29, Anadolu Agency reported, that Islamic countries have not yet reached their target of raising intra-OIC trade to 25%, and that the 57-member OIC accounts for nearly one-fifth of the world’s population but only 10%-11% of global goods trade. “In fact, even this 25% is low. We need to target much more,” he said in June, according to Daily Sabah.
Türkiye’s Trade Targets With the UAE and Egypt Sit Far Above Last Year
Türkiye’s bilateral trade targets, discussed on the session’s sidelines, stand well above what it traded last year. Trade Minister Omer Bolat discussed a $40 billion target with the UAE, Anadolu Agency reported on November 2, against about $19 billion last year, according to Hürriyet Daily News. Türkiye and Egypt aim for $15 billion, Anadolu Agency reported, against $7.9 billion last year on Hürriyet Daily News figures. Anadolu Agency gave no target dates.
The COMCEC session was scheduled to run through November 3, and no closing resolution had been reported when this article was prepared. Türkiye aims to raise the share of Islamic countries in its exports from 27% to 30% by 2028, Hürriyet Daily News reported.
Author
