The insurance arm of Saudi Arabia’s Islamic Development Bank is looking to offer cover on credit facilities provided to the country’s small and medium-sized exporters, in an effort to increase the volume of the country’s non-oil exports.

According to a memorandum of understanding signed between the Islamic Corporation for the Insurance of Investment and Export Credit (ICIEC) and Saudi Arabia’s National Commercial Bank, the insurer will provide 90 per cent insurance cover on export credit extended by banks to the country’s small and medium-sized businesses.

The ICIEC states that the purpose of the agreement is to help small non-oil exporters that struggle to access credit, and that it will be the only multilateral export credit insurer capable of providing sharia-compliant products.