How the estimate works
Sources
The estimator follows these MoIAT documents, both published on the MoIAT ICV Formula page and checked on 8 November 2026:
- National In-Country Value (ICV) Certification Guidelines for Suppliers, September 2025 (PDF, 30 pages, marked "MoIAT Classification: OPEN"). Section numbers below refer to this document.
- ICV Template, September 2025 v1 (Excel). Where the guidelines say a band is "progressive", we use the exact cell formulas in this template.
To check we copied the formula correctly, we entered 54 test scenarios into the official template, recalculated it in LibreOffice Calc, and confirmed that ICV Check gives the same answer for every component to nine decimal places. You can run these checks yourself on the formula tests page.
Two formulas
A supplier with a UAE industrial licence is a goods manufacturer. Everyone else, including agents and traders, is a service provider (section 4). The two formulas share most components.
| Component | Goods manufacturer | Service provider |
|---|---|---|
| Manufacturing cost / third party spend | 50% | 50% |
| Investment | 25% | 25% |
| Emiratisation | 15% | 15% |
| Expatriate contribution | 10% | 10% |
| ICV bonus | up to 5% | up to 5% |
| Advanced technology and sustainability bonus | up to 6% | up to 3% (sustainability) |
| Maximum total | 111% | 108% |
1. Manufacturing cost or third party spend (50%)
(in-country value of costs + Emirati cost + 0.6 × expat cost) ÷ (total costs + Emirati cost + expat cost) × 0.5
The ratio is capped at 1 (template Page 2 cell N4 and Page 3 cell C4). How each cost line counts:
- Goods manufacturers (section 5.3): purchases from UAE manufacturers 100%; UAE service providers and agents at 50% or their ICV%, whichever is higher; depreciation and amortisation of UAE assets 100%; costs outside the UAE at the supplier's ICV%; depreciation of assets outside the UAE 0%.
- Service providers (section 5.4): vendors in the UAE at their certified ICV%, with a floor of 10%; vendors outside the UAE, and free zone service providers, at their certified ICV% or 0% without one; depreciation and amortisation 100%.
- Both: water and electricity 80%, rent of property or land 80%, UAE government charges 100%, payments to government free zone authorities 100%, local UAE farmers 80%. Fuel and telecoms at the provider's ICV%.
- Excluded from total costs: board fees, sponsorship fees, government fines, penalties and taxes, charity and CSR, losses on disposal of assets or foreign exchange, depreciation on excluded assets.
Emirati cost is salary, benefits, qualifying donations and external training. Expat cost is salary, benefits and external training.
2. Investment (25%)
NBV of UAE assets ÷ NBV of total assets × 10%
Plus a top-up of up to 15% based on the NBV of UAE assets (section 5.5, template Page 4 cell F504):
| NBV of UAE assets | Top-up |
|---|---|
| AED 5m or less | 0% |
| AED 5m to 50m | rises evenly from 0% to 5% |
| AED 50m to 100m | rises evenly from 5% to 10% |
| AED 100m to 150m | rises evenly from 10% to 15% |
| AED 150m and above | 15% |
3. Emiratisation (15%)
Based on total Emirati salary, benefits, qualifying donations and external training (section 5.6, template Page 5 cell H6):
- Any amount up to AED 200,000: 2%.
- Above AED 200,000: 2% + (amount in AED millions × 13 ÷ 19.8), capped at 15%. The cap is reached at AED 19.8m.
- Donations count only to Sondoq Al Watan, Ma'an, NACD or the listed government universities, and only from AED 120,000. ICV Check leaves out donations below that.
4. Expatriate contribution (10%)
Based on the average number of expatriate employees in the UAE (section 5.7, template Page 6 cell F5):
| Average headcount | Score in template |
|---|---|
| 1 | 1% |
| 2 to 4 | headcount × 0.5% (1% to 2%) |
| 5 | 3% |
| 6 | 4% |
| 7 to 44 | 4% + headcount × 2 ÷ 44 (about 4.3% to 6%) |
| 45 to 50 | 6% |
| 51 to 200 | 6% + headcount × 3 ÷ 149, capped at 9% |
| Above 200 | 10% |
The guidelines give the bands as 1 to 3%, 4 to 6%, 7 to 9% and 10%. The table above is what the template formula actually does. One oddity: as written, the template gives 10% for an average headcount strictly between 5 and 6, or strictly between 50 and 51. ICV Check copies the template and shows a warning when this applies.
5. ICV bonus (up to 5%)
- Exports: revenue from outside UAE customers excluding re-exports ÷ total revenue × 5%. Only for suppliers based in the UAE.
- Emirati headcount: number of Emiratis in WPS ÷ 100 × 5%.
- Investment growth: growth in NBV of UAE assets on the previous year × 5%. No bonus if assets fell.
- The three together are capped at 5% (section 5.9).
6. Advanced technology and sustainability bonus
- Goods manufacturers, up to 6% (section 5.10): ITTI score below 30% gives 0%, 30 to 39.99% gives 3%, 40 to 59.99% gives 4%, 60% and above gives 5%. Plus 1% for ISO 14001, 14046 or 50001, or the Green Industries Label.
- Service providers, up to 3% (section 5.11): 0.5% each for implemented policies on sustainability strategy and governance, material circularity, water and wastewater, and emissions. Plus 1% for ISO 14001, 14046 or 50001.
What the estimate cannot do
- It cannot check your figures against audited financial statements, WPS records, certificates of origin or vendor ICV certificates. A certifying body will.
- It works on totals you type in, not your full vendor list. Small differences in how you group costs will not change the result, but leaving costs out will.
- Rules on which accounts to use (stand-alone audited statements for financial years ending after 31 December 2024, Annexure 1), certificate validity (14 months from the date of the audited statements, section 3.d) and NAFIS registration (section 3.q) affect whether you can be certified, not the score. The estimator does not check them.
- MoIAT updates the guidelines from time to time. This version follows September 2025. If MoIAT publishes a newer version, the estimate may be out of date until we update it.
Questions about the official method go to MoIAT at ICV@moiat.gov.ae (section 6). Found a mistake in ICV Check? Please email TODO_CONTACT_EMAIL.