IDCOL building the financial foundations of growth
From power plants and export industries to renewable energy and household solar, IDCOL has spent nearly three decades financing projects that have helped reshape Bangladesh’s economy. Its next challenge is to finance what comes after.
Nearly three decades ago, IDCOL was created with a straightforward mandate: help improve the standard of living of the people of Bangladesh by bridging the country's infrastructure financing gap and bringing private capital into infrastructure development. Looking back, I believe we have remained faithful to that purpose, and Bangladesh's own growth story provides the strongest evidence.
Our first major transaction was the 450MW Meghnaghat plant in 2001, Bangladesh's first independent power producer and first BOT project. The importance of that project went beyond its generating capacity. It demonstrated that private capital could build and operate infrastructure of national importance, and that a Bangladeshi institution could structure the financing required to make it happen. It gave local entrepreneurs confidence to enter large infrastructure projects and provided commercial lenders with a model to follow.
That approach continued across sectors. Infrastructure and industrial projects remain the largest part of our lending, covering export-oriented manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, steel, agro-processing, healthcare, logistics and port facilities. The connection between such financing and economic growth is direct. A backward-linkage factory can reduce import dependence and retain value within the country. Energy-efficient technology can protect the competitiveness of export industries while reducing their energy costs. Ultimately, these investments translate into production, employment and household income.
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Renewable energy became another important part of that journey. When the sector was still largely untapped, IDCOL channelled long-term concessional finance into renewable projects and helped bring private developers into the market. We have since financed 912MWp of renewable capacity, roughly 40% of the national renewable portfolio. But the bigger achievement, in my view, is the ecosystem that has grown around these investments — from technical standards and supply chains to project sponsors and service networks.
The impact has also reached households directly. More than 43 million people have benefited from IDCOL-supported programmes. Our Solar Home System programme brought electricity to families before the national grid could reach them, while solar irrigation reduced farmers' costs and improved productivity. Improved cookstoves, meanwhile, helped reduce household fuel expenses and indoor air pollution. These are not simply development indicators; they represent changes in how people live.
As Bangladesh moves towards becoming an upper-middle-income country, the scale and nature of financing must evolve. Our Business Strategy 2030 reflects that reality. We plan to nearly double our loan portfolio from around Tk11,500 crore today to Tk23,000 crore by 2030, maintaining a balanced focus on infrastructure and renewable energy.
We are expanding in industrial energy efficiency, backward-linkage industries, agro-processing, healthcare, ports and logistics, while also entering areas such as green transport, ICT and social infrastructure.
At the same time, we recognise that energy security and industrial competitiveness are increasingly connected. In 2025 alone, IDCOL financed more than Tk360 crore of energy-efficient technology adoption, largely in textiles and apparel. Every renewable megawatt and efficiency retrofit can reduce dependence on imported fuel, conserve foreign exchange and provide some protection against volatility in global energy prices.
Our renewable energy ambition is particularly significant. Under our 2026–2030 business plan, we intend to finance around 4,800MW of new renewable capacity. This includes utility-scale solar, merchant renewable power, commercial and industrial rooftop solar, and a planned Domestic Rooftop Solar programme targeting 1,000MWp across roughly 250,000 homes. We are also exploring storage, wind and floating solar, alongside clean cooking, clean cooling and waste-to-energy initiatives.
But development finance cannot be sustained without financial discipline. We do not see profitability and development as competing objectives. Development impact is where our decisions begin, but financial strength is what allows us to keep taking development risks year after year. IDCOL closed 2025 with a capital adequacy ratio of 20.39%, an AA1 credit rating and net profit growth of 23%. Around 74% of our assets qualify as green.
Our role, therefore, is not simply to lend money. We aim to build markets. The Solar Home System programme is a good example: IDCOL did not install the panels itself. We established standards, certified equipment, structured incentives and worked through partner organisations that already had the trust of rural communities. Development partners provided patient capital, government established the policy direction, and the private sector delivered.
Looking ahead, I see enormous potential in the clean energy economy, CMSMEs and the financial architecture needed to fund long-term development. We want to expand access to affordable finance for smaller businesses, encourage commercial capital into infrastructure through risk-sharing and guarantees, and help develop a domestic market for long-term financing.
If there is one thing I would want IDCOL's legacy to represent, it is this: a Bangladeshi institution, run with discipline and purpose, can finance what others would not, improve the lives of millions and build development-finance models that others come to Bangladesh to learn from.
