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The Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD) Signs 13 Landmark Agreements to Promote Private Sector Growth in its Member Countries

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The Islamic Corporation

The signing of these agreements reinforce ICD’s commitment to propelling solidarity and prosperity through strategic partnerships and promoting access to finance and financial inclusion in its member countries

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, May 8, 2024/APO Group/ — 

The Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD) (www.ICD-ps.org), a member of the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) Group, is pleased to announce the signing of 13 significant agreements aimed at catalyzing economic development and bolstering private sector growth and initiatives across several member countries in diverse regions across the world.

The signings took place on the third day of the 2024 Annual Meetings of the IsDB Group, which celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Group’s journey in fostering and promoting economic growth and development of its member countries. The signing of these agreements reinforce ICD’s commitment to propelling solidarity and prosperity through strategic partnerships and promoting access to finance and financial inclusion in its member countries.

In a strategic move to promote access to finance in the Republic of Togo, ICD has inked a Letter of Intent for a EUR 20 million Line of Financing Facility with the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (“EBID”). This Facility when disbursed is expected to augment the capacity of EBID to finance a spectrum of private sector projects in common member countries of ICD and EBID in the ECOWAS region, thereby contributing to economic expansion and job creation.

Further, the ICD also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Coris Bank of Togo with the objective of increasing the cooperation between the two institutions and in particular, enhancing the capacity of Coris Bank to develop tailored support and increase its financing to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Togo.

Given the number of its member countries in the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) and its objectives of developing strategic initiatives and partnerships to evaluate investment prospects within the region, the ICD also signed an MOU with the Banque Sahélo-Saharienne pour l’Investissement et le Commerce (BSIC) Group for a proposed USD 30 million Line of Finance Facility.  The Facility will be deployed through affiliates of the BSIC Group to finance eligible private sectors enterprises in ICD’s member countries operating within the WAEMU region.

Also, in its effort to support the financial sector in the Federal Republic of Nigeria and The Gambia, the ICD signed two separate MOUs with Jaiz Bank PLC of Nigeria and AGIB Bank Limited of Gambia. In the MOU with AGIB, the Parties agreed to explore further investment in AGIB (the first and only Islamic Bank in Gambia) in joint collaboration with the largest telecom company in Gambia (Q-Cell) to support the Bank’s strategy for local and regional expansion under digital infrastructure and food security programs. Additionally, the Parties will also collaborate in attracting growth capital from other financial institutions to the Bank.

In the MOU signed with Jaiz Bank PLC of Nigeria, the Parties agreed to explore potential investment opportunities through the introduction of Additional Tier 1 Capital (Mudarabah Capital) for the business growth of Jaiz Bank PLC and its regional expansion through ICD’s partnership and networks. Additionally, ICD agreed to consider providing Jaiz Bank with relevant technical and advisory assistance to support its operations through leveraging on ICD’s other partner’s expertise and network across its member countries.

To unlock opportunities in enhancing credit enhancement coverage for Line of Finance facilities in mutual member countries, the ICD also signed an MoU with the Fonds De Solidarite Africain (“FSA”), a multilateral financial institution based in Niger. The objective of this MoU is to explore credit enhancement coverage for ICD’s Line of Finance facilities to eligible financial institutions across its member countries in Africa.

In furtherance of its efforts to advance climate-resilient infrastructure projects across Africa, the ICD and the Africa Finance Corporation (based in Nigeria) also signed an Addendum to an MoU they signed earlier to explore co-investment and financing opportunities in their common member countries especially in infrastructure development and climate resilience projects.

In a bid to provide additional support to private sector enterprises in Bangladesh, ICD also entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with BD Finance Bangladesh Limited. This MoU aims to provide technical and advisory assistance to BD Finance to support its transition into a fully-fledged Islamic Financial Institution, and to explore potential investment opportunities in Bangladesh.

Further, in ICD’s drive to enhance its partnership and support to financial institutions in the Maldives, the ICD signed an MoU with Maldives Islamic Bank to explore potential investment opportunities (mainly equity investments in the form of Tier 1 capital) within Maldives and in other member countries of ICD.  

Still in Maldives, the CD also signed two Memorandum of Understanding with the Ministry of Finance of Maldives to cooperate and to work closely in exploring and identifying investment, financing, advisory services or technical assistance opportunities in Maldives and other member countries of ICD that are of mutual benefit to both parties and will promote sustainable socio-economic development. In particular, through the first MOU, the MoF of Maldives, and/or via government investment agencies or financial institutions, will explore potential co-investment with ICD for establishing an Islamic Bank in the Republic of Uzbekistan. Additionally, both Parties agree to provide required technical assistance to this new Islamic Bank once established in the form of short-term liquidity management, capacity building and support in developing and diversifying its product offerings. In the second MOU, the ICD and the Ministry of Fnance committed to explore potential investment and financing opportunities in infrastructure, aviation, fisheries sectors and other sectors that are priority for the Government of Maldives. In addition, to enhance the efficiency and robustness of the local financial sector, ICD is also looking forward to supporting the sector with Tier 1 Capital investments.

In its efforts to strengthen its partnerships with banks in the GCC region, the ICD signed a Letter of Intent with Al Salam Bank of Bahrain) outlining the intention of the parties for a proposed USD 50 million Line of Finance facility to be provided by ICD to the Al Salam Bank to support Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Bahrain.

Still in the GCC, the ICD and the National Development Fund of Saudi Arabia, a day earlier, signed an MOU to cooperate and work closely in exploring and identifying Shari’ah compliant investments, financing, advisory services opportunities within infrastructure projects in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia that are of mutual benefit to both Parties and will promote sustainable socio-economic development. Through this MOU the Parties committed to leverage technological advancements and innovations to enhance the efficiency and impact of their joint investments, ensuring that they remain aligned with the latest industry standards and practices. The Parties also agreed to share, and exchange knowledge related to development impact assessment tools and systems and work towards attracting, mobilizing, and channeling private sector and foreign capital for infrastructure projects in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD).

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AFRICLOUD Opens Lagos Region and Local-Currency Payments in African Markets

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September 23, 2026

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The company’s third African region keeps Nigerian workloads in Nigeria, and customers from Abidjan to Nairobi can now pay in the currency they earn, without an international card

MIAMI BEACH, United States of America, September 23, 2026/APO Group/ –AFRICLOUD (https://AFRICLOUD.com), a cloud infrastructure company, has opened its third African region in Lagos and now accepts payment in local currency across West, Central, East and Southern Africa. Businesses across the continent can run servers in Nigeria, South Africa or Portugal from one account, and pay for them the way they already pay for everything else.

 




  

Download document (1): https://apo-opa.co/4Ardfz9

Download document (2): https://apo-opa.co/46FWH8Y

Buying cloud infrastructure in Africa has meant living with three compromises: traffic that leaves the continent and comes back, payment in dollars behind a card many businesses do not hold, and data sitting under somebody else’s law.

Lagos answers the first. Compute and storage for Nigerian customers stay in Nigeria, and the region also serves Accra, Abidjan, Lome, Douala and Ouagadougou. Traffic from landlocked West Africa that once reached comparable infrastructure by way of Europe now stays on terrestrial West African fibre. Johannesburg serves Southern and East Africa. Lisbon serves North Africa and Europe, and reaches Brazil over a direct subsea route. Across the three regions, AFRICLOUD’s own continent-wide measurements place 42 of the 53 African countries measured within a best-case round trip of 70 milliseconds, countries home to about 1.28 billion people.

A company in Accra or Abidjan now reaches West African infrastructure without leaving the region, and pays for it in the currency it earns

Payment answers the second. Customers across West, Central, East and Southern Africa pay in their own currency, including the naira, the cedi, the shilling and the CFA francs, by local card, bank transfer, USSD or mobile money, with no international card needed. Mobile money is live in twelve African countries, and cards, PayPal and more than 300 cryptocurrencies are accepted everywhere. The GSMA reports that 74 per cent of the world’s mobile money activity by transaction count took place in Africa in 2024.

Residency answers the third. Nigerian data runs under the Nigeria Data Protection Act, South African data under POPIA and European workloads under EU law, chosen server by server from the same dashboard.

“African businesses have been asked to choose between infrastructure that is close, infrastructure they can actually pay for, and infrastructure that keeps their data under their own law,” said Oluniyi Ajao, Founder of AFRICLOUD. “Removing that choice is the reason we built this.”

“Lagos is the piece that completes the map,” he said. “A company in Accra or Abidjan now reaches West African infrastructure without leaving the region, and pays for it in the currency it earns.”

All three regions run the same platform: AMD EPYC processors with all-NVMe storage, IPv4 and IPv6 on every server, and a new server online in about two minutes. Dedicated Servers are built to order in all three regions. Support is available around the clock by chat and email.

Cloud Servers are available now at https://AFRICLOUD.com.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of AFRICLOUD LLC.

 

 




 

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Hong Kong outlines strategies for deepening development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and enhancing green transformation

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September 23, 2026

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HONG KONG SAR – Media OutReach Newswire – 22 September 2026 – Hong Kong’s Chief Executive John Lee announced the First Five-Year Plan for Economic and Social Development of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) (2026-2030) and his fifth Policy Address on September 16, rolling out measures to further sharpen Hong Kong’s edge amid global competition, consolidate development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) and promote green transformation.

Initiatives aim to support high-quality development of the GBA, align rules and mechanisms within the region, and promote cross-boundary collaboration.

 




 
 

“The HKSAR Government will continue its efforts in fostering synergistic development of the GBA,” said Mr Lee. “We will strengthen co‑operation in technological innovation, promote ‘hard connectivity’ in infrastructure, foster ‘soft connectivity’ by deepening the alignment of rules and mechanisms, and achieve ‘connectivity of hearts’ among residents of the three places.”

The HKSAR Government will continue to actively participate in the development of the various major co-operation platforms, including Qianhai of Shenzhen, Nansha of Guangzhou, Hengqin of Zhuhai and the Hetao Shenzhen-Hong Kong Co-operation Zone, to promote mutual benefits.

In terms of “hard connectivity” the HKSAR Government will support Nansha in its role as a high‑standard gateway for opening up, including encouraging the trade to participate in Nansha’s infrastructure development.

“To promote the co‑ordinated development of rail transit in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao, we are pressing ahead with the Northern Link Project and the Hong Kong‑Shenzhen Western Rail Link (Hung Shui Kiu‑Qianhai), with target commissioning in 2034 and 2035 respectively, to fully connect the rail transit networks of Hong Kong and Shenzhen,” Mr Lee said.

Regarding “soft connectivity”, Mr Lee said the HKSAR Government will set up a Task Force to explore ways to advance the alignment of rules and mechanisms within the GBA.

To achieve “Connectivity of Hearts” among residents across the GBA, Hong Kong will strengthen co-operation between its higher education institutions and those in other GBA cities by establishing cross‑disciplinary partnerships, facilitating scientific research, knowledge transfer, and commercialisation, with a view to promoting high‑level research.

Hong Kong’s Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs, Janice Tse, noted that the First Five-Year Plan clearly states that Hong Kong will participate in the development of the GBA into an international first‑class bay area and a world‑class city cluster with global influence.

“Hong Kong will forge closer alignment and synergy with the nine GBA cities in Guangdong Province and Macao, making full use of our respective advantages to jointly promote the high-quality development of the GBA,” Miss Tse said.

To foster financial development in the GBA, Hong Kong will continue to capitalise on institutional innovation, financial infrastructure upgrading and enhanced regulatory alignment to encourage the orderly flow of financial elements among GBA cities.

The Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited’s Core Climate, in collaboration with the Guangzhou Power Exchange Centre, is working towards the pilot trading of national renewable‑energy, green electricity certificates in Hong Kong in 2026.

“On connecting the Chinese Mainland and the world, the HKSAR Government will continue to support green technology development through the HK$400 million (aboutUS$51 million) Green Tech Fund, leveraging Hong Kong’s function as a springboard for green technology and assisting national green technologies and products in going global,” said Hong Kong’sSecretary for Environment and Ecology, Tse Chin-wan. “On the development of hydrogen energy, we have participated in drafting national hydrogen energy standards with a view to helping these standards align with international practice.”

To meet the country’s “dual carbon” targets and fulfil Hong Kong’s commitment to achieving carbon neutrality before 2050, the HKSAR Government steered the establishment of a production base for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) in Dongguan, leveraging the leading position of Hong Kong enterprises in the international SAF industry.

“By combining technology strengths with industrial foundation, Hong Kong and Guangdong will jointly develop a globally influential green industry,” Mr Lee said.

The HKSAR Government will take forward the construction of an SAF blending facility in Hong Kong to build an end‑to‑end SAF value chain and reduce logistics costs to make SAF prices more competitive. The target is to achieve an SAF consumption ratio of 1% to 3% for flights departing from Hong Kong International Airport in 2030.

Hong Kong’s Five-Year Plan promotes the integrated development of culture, sports, and tourism, to develop the GBA into a cultured bay area.

Under the strategic framework of the Agreement on Strengthening of Sports Cooperation and Promotion of Integrated Development, Hong Kong will deepen co-operation, and strive to co‑organise important regional and international single‑sport events. It will also strengthen cultural exchanges, pass on Cantonese opera and the characteristics of Lingnan culture, and promote the sales and cross‑boundary exhibition of Hong Kong publications.
 




 

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Alamein Africa Forum to bring together key political and business leaders

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September 23, 2026

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The forum is to become the continent’s premier gathering where political power meets entrepreneurial prowess, bridging the established engines of African growth with the new sectors defining its future

CAIRO, Egypt, September 22, 2026/APO Group/ –The inaugural Alamein Africa Forum (https://AlameinForum.com/) will take place from October 2-4 in the historic city of Alamein on Egypt’s Mediterranean coast in parallel with the 2026 African Union mid-year summit.

Established in response to a mandate from the African Union, which called for a permanent African Business Forum to convene biennially in Egypt, the inaugural edition will bring together Heads of State and official delegations as well as some key actors in business and finance.
 




 

The forum is to become the continent’s premier gathering where political power meets entrepreneurial prowess, bridging the established engines of African growth with the new sectors defining its future.

The Alamein Africa Forum will serve as a pan-African platform bringing together the private sector, investment and financial institutions

The Presidents of Algeria, Angola, Burundi, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Libya, Senegal, Somalia, and South Africa are expected in Alamein as well as President Al Sisi, President of the Arab Republic of Egypt who is the host of this year’s AU Mid-Year Summit. Business leaders from across the continent have confirmed their participation including Ralph Mupita, MTN; Idrissa Nassa, Coris Bank; Mohamed El Ketani, Attijariwafa Bank; Hichem Eloumi, Groupe Shakira; Wale Tinubu, Oando; and many more. Aliko Dangote, Africa’s biggest industrialist is also expected to attend, with the organisers hoping to set up a Business Advisory Council to help advance private sector priorities and investment throughout the continent.

Bringing together leaders in politics, business and policy from across the continent, the Alamein Africa Forum will provide a unique opportunity to shape Africa’s growth agenda by aligning policy and investment priorities, mobilising partnerships for implementation and strengthening financing and investment pathways. The private sector must become an integral part of Agenda 2063, the AU’s strategic 50 year masterplan to transform the continent.

Co-organised by the Government of Egypt, Afreximbank, the African Union and AUDA-NEPAD, the Forum brings together Africa’s most influential decision-makers in an unprecedented alliance of public and private sector leadership.

Speaking on the imperative of the summit at a joint press conference by the government of Egypt and Afreximbank on Thursday, September 17 2026, Dr. Badr Abdelatty, Minister of Foreign Affairs, International Cooperation, and Expatriates Abroad said (https://apo-opa.co/4ygiQag): “The Alamein Africa Forum will serve as a pan-African platform bringing together the private sector, investment and financial institutions, and representatives of various productive and service sectors, to strengthen direct links between companies and markets and decision making at the highest level.”

Continuing, he noted that the Alamein Africa Forum is part of a series of high-level African events that Egypt will host in early October, stressing that holding the forum reflects Egypt’s commitment to advancing continental economic cooperation

In his own comments, Dr. George Elombi, President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Afreximbank described (https://apo-opa.co/4ygiQag) the Alamein Africa Forum as a pan-African platform for promoting intra-African trade and investment and connecting the business community and financial institutions with priority projects and investment opportunities in the continent.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Alamein Africa Forum.

 




 

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