An In-Country Value certificate scores how much of your spend stays in the UAE economy. ADNOC and a growing list of government and semi-government buyers weight it in tender evaluation — which means for some businesses it decides whether a bid is read at all. It is calculated entirely from your audited financial statements.
What ICV certification is
A certificate issued by an approved certifying body, scoring your contribution to the UAE economy against a defined formula. The score is a percentage, and buyers apply it as a weighting when comparing bids.
It is not a licence or a permit. It is a competitive score, and a higher one gives you an advantage against a rival quoting the same price.
Who needs one
- Suppliers to ADNOC and its operating companies
- Suppliers to other participating government and semi-government entities, as the programme has expanded
- Subcontractors in those supply chains, because main contractors pass the requirement down
- Manufacturers and businesses with UAE operations, who typically score well and should be using it
If your customers are asking for your ICV score, you already need one. If they are not yet, and you sell into these supply chains, they will.
What the score measures
The formula reads defined categories from your audited accounts:
- Goods manufactured in the UAE and local supplier spend
- Workforce cost, with Emirati employment weighted favourably
- Investment in UAE-based assets
- Expatriate contribution
- Emiratisation as a distinct uplift
Because inputs come from audited figures, your audited financial statements must be complete and correctly classified before certification begins. Full mechanics in how the ICV score is calculated.
Classification decides more than performance
This is the point that costs businesses the most score, and it is entirely avoidable.
Local supplier spend recorded under a generic overhead heading cannot be attributed to the category that would have scored. The money stayed in the UAE; the accounts simply do not evidence it. Two companies with identical operations can therefore certify at materially different scores purely because of how their chart of accounts is structured.
Getting this right requires the bookkeeping to separate UAE from overseas supplier spend, split payroll between Emirati and expatriate employees, and identify UAE-based assets clearly — ideally from the start rather than reconstructed afterwards.
The ICV certification UAE process
- Audited financial statements for the relevant financial year, prepared under the correct framework
- Classification review — we check how spend, payroll and assets are recorded before submission
- Supplier ICV certificates collected, since a supplier’s own certificate can improve your score on that spend
- Template completion in the certifying body’s prescribed format
- Submission and review, with queries answered
- Certificate issued with your score
Validity and renewal timing
An ICV certificate is typically valid until fourteen months after the financial year end of the audited accounts used. That creates a short window where an expired certificate can cost you a tender.
Treat renewal as part of the annual audit cycle rather than a task triggered by a bid. Companies that wait for a tender frequently discover the certificate lapsed weeks earlier, and there is no fast route to reissue.
Newly formed companies
A company without a full year of audited accounts can generally still certify, using the position available, though the score reflects limited operating history.
If you are forming a business specifically to serve these supply chains — particularly with an industrial licence, where manufacturing scores well — structure the accounts for ICV from the first month. Retrofitting the classification later costs score you cannot recover for that year.
Frequently asked questions
Yes. The certificate is derived from audited financial statements, so the audit comes first.
Typically until fourteen months after the financial year end of the accounts used, which ties renewal to your audit cycle.
Yes. The score is proportional - a small company sourcing locally can outscore a larger importer.
Most often classification rather than performance. Local spend recorded under generic overheads does not count toward the categories that score.
Yes. A supplier's own ICV certificate can improve your score on spend with them, so collecting them is worth the effort.
Generally yes, using the position available, though the score reflects limited operating history.
Getting started
Send us your latest audited accounts and we will estimate where your score would land — and, more usefully, show you which reclassifications would move it before you certify.