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UAE residents can now apply for the second 5-year retail T-Sukuk, here's how

Second retail sukuk follows strong demand, with the profit rate due September 22

Last updated: September 18, 2026 | 15:46

Nivetha Dayanand, Assistant Business Editor and Stacy Pereira, Business Reporter

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Dubai: UAE residents now have a second chance to invest in the country's sovereign Sukuk programme, after the government confirmed a new five-year retail T-Sukuk following a strong debut for the first offering.

The Ministry of Finance is rolling out the second issuance after its inaugural retail T-Sukuk drew Dh445 million in orders, nearly nine times its original Dh50 million target. Demand was so strong that officials doubled the size of that first offering to Dh100 million.

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The Shariah-compliant investment instrument is fully backed by the UAE Government and is designed to give individual investors direct access to government debt instruments without requiring a large upfront investment.

Dh1,000 minimum opens access to more investors

The latest five-year sukuk retains the Dh1,000 minimum subscription threshold, giving smaller retail investors access to a sovereign investment instrument that would otherwise typically be associated with larger institutional transactions. The profit rate for the new issuance is due to be announced on September 22.

Who can apply

The programme is open to both UAE nationals and residents, part of a deliberate push by the Ministry of Finance to widen participation in sovereign debt instruments beyond large institutional investors. The first round saw broad uptake: about 76% of investors put in Dh10,000 or less, UAE nationals made up 72% of subscribers, and investors under 25 combined with women accounted for 45% of the investor base.

How to apply

Residents can subscribe through several channels:

Dubai Financial Market's eIPO platform
The iVestor app
The DFM app
Digital channels operated by participating banks

Also Read: UAE targets Dh2.56 trillion in Islamic finance assets by 2031

Also Read: UAE doubles size of first retail T-Sukuk offering to Dh100m on high demand

Also Read: UAE's first retail T-Sukuk opens: Dh1,000 minimum, 4.30% profit rate

Where investors can subscribe

Emirates NBD will act as the lead receiving bank for the second issuance.

Emirates Islamic, Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, Ajman Bank, Mashreq, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank and First Abu Dhabi Bank will also participate as receiving banks.

Subscriptions can be made through the participating banks’ digital channels, alongside DFM’s eIPO platform, iVestor app and DFM app.

The Ministry said the programme is intended to broaden participation in UAE sovereign investment instruments and encourage long-term saving and investment among nationals and residents.

What happens after you invest

Once the subscription period closes and allocation and settlement are completed, the sukuk will be listed on Nasdaq Dubai, which also acts as the central securities depository and settlement platform. That listing means investors are not locked in until maturity. They can trade their holdings on the secondary market if they want liquidity before the five-year term ends, similar to how the first two-year issuance worked after it listed on July 2, 2026.

For residents who missed the first round, or want to lock in a longer-term, government-backed return with a low entry point, the coming subscription window is the one to watch, with full pricing details expected within days.

This article was first published on October 16, 2025 and has been updated since.

Nivetha DayanandAssistant Business Editor

Nivetha Dayanand is Assistant Business Editor at Gulf News, covering aviation, financial markets and commodities. A business and financial journalist with a strong interest in multimedia storytelling, she regularly takes complex financial and economic subjects beyond the written word, producing explainer videos that make them easier for a wider audience to understand. Nivetha has interviewed senior policymakers, business leaders and global financial figures both on and off camera. Her past guests include UAE Minister of Economy and Tourism Abdulla bin Touq Al Marri, Khaled bin Alwaleed Al Saud, a member of the House of Saud and the founder and CEO of KBW Ventures, Jihad Azour, Director of the Middle East and Central Asia Department at the International Monetary Fund and Indian ministers Hardeep Singh Puri and N. Chandrababu Naidu. She has also hosted and moderated panels, conferences and awards shows, bringing her newsroom experience to live conversations on business, finance and the economy. An Erasmus Mundus journalism alum, Nivetha is drawn to stories that affect people directly and to reporting that gives a platform to voices that might otherwise go unheard. She was among the first journalists to speak to Petrofac employees in the UAE about unpaid salaries, broke the news of the planned demolition of Dubai’s well-known “Toyota Building”, and helped set the record straight on widely circulated claims that a giant replica of the Moon was coming to Dubai. More recently, her exclusive interview with EDGE Group CEO Hamad Al Marar revealed how the UAE-based defence group deployed its systems along the country’s shore border and established a geofence around the UAE within 48 hours of the February 28 escalation. Prior to joining Gulf News, Nivetha worked at ITP Media, where she helped launch Finance Middle East, a new publication covering the region’s financial sector. Her role spanned reporting and editing, video production, interviews and events. Across print, digital, and video, she focuses on finding the people behind business stories and explaining why those stories matter to the audience reading or watching them.

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