Bank of Sudan, Holding on Among the Fires

As I see it

By Adil El-Baz

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I could not believe my eyes while reading the General Policies Report of the Central Bank of the Sudan (CBS) for the fiscal year 2024, as published at the end of last year (December 31st). I was so happy, so happy because we still have such cohesive and strong institution standing tall despite the burning fires around it, an institution capable of adopting policies and of managing the banking system in the country. If there is in this war another face of resilience along with the Armed Forces, then this face is the Central Bank of the Sudan, there is no grain of doubt about it…what has it done?
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With the outbreak of this war, the CBS has been occupied and looted, and all its computers and equipment have been disrupted and even completely destroyed, which means that it has lost contact with all parts of the banking system and lost the data that was stored in those devices. This was a true disaster that had never happened in the history of Sudan, and no one could have imagined or planned hopw to handle that situation before. The most that could be thought of was a fire in the bank. However, savages landed and did to the bank what was beyond imagination. The above-mentioned bank circular stated: “The infrastructure of the central bank, bank headquarters, some of its branches in some states, ATM machines, banking systems, and services were destroyed.” Despite this disaster, the employees only took a short time before they accepted the challenge, gathered all their experience, and quickly recovered the information that had been stored in other locations and linked to external devices. Many of the bank’s employees insisted on leaving for Port Sudan in those dangerous conditions, and they actually arrived and continued the bank’s work from there.
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Many people do not know how banks maintained their balances after everything in them was destroyed, and how banking applications continued to work smoothly, especially the (Your Bank-Bankak) application, and some other applications followed suit, enabling bank customers to benefit from their balances and purchase the goods and services they need. This achievement, which occurred in a record time, was the result of genuine brains, experience, and effort.
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Not only that but the Bank of Sudan persevered and rose to support the war effort by quickly focusing on the export sector , taking advantage of its diversified revenues. The bank was also able to maintain its foreign relations and correspondence, which allowed it to easily continue its work in the field of exports and imports and kept confidence in Sudanese banks intact despite the war, destruction and plundering. Credits and financing operations continued smoothly despite their limitations, keeping the banks alive and active.
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The performance of the Bank of Sudan and its income from various export revenues enabled it to continue to maintain the flow of strategic goods for which the largest proportion of these revenues was allocated, especially fuel, on which gold production depends and on which the army depends in all its movements and mechanisms.
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Supporting the war effort by arranging priorities and making victory in the war a top priority to which all resources deserved to be directed now.
President Al-Burhan has mentioned on more than one occasion that this is a war for the Sudanese in which no country in the world is assisting them and that they are fighting using their own national resources. This is a miracle that Sudan has persevered in a war in where the enemy has open budget from countries that have billions of dollars in their banks as reserves and have hundreds of billions in their sovereign funds. By contrast the Bank of Sudan reserves were at their lowest levels at the time of the outbreak of war!!. Add to that the money looted by the Janjaweed, in addition to the money they plundered from the banks and depositors’ money, and the “Siphoning off” of people money and their livelong harvest, all of which enabled the militias to continue purchasing weapons, distorting and bribing individuals at home, and buying licensed African leaders abroad.

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Among the goals and policies announced by the Bank of Sudan for the year 2024, I have looked into two goals that the new policy seeks to achieve: the first of which, according to the publication, is (encouraging the conduct of mergers and acquisitions and encouraging foreign contributions to the capitals of banks and financial institutions, encouraging foreign contributions to the capitals of banks and financial institutions). This along time sought policy but alas none of the past administrations at the bank were able to push for it, despite the fact that the conditions that some Sudanese banks have reached as a result of their capitals weakness. It was necessary to quickly complete the merger operations, as the capitals of some banks are shameful, and likewise, inviting foreign banks to invest within Sudan or to establish branches. This expansion policy is now considered of utmost importance, especially since we have a successful experience when foreign investors and the Bank of Dubai entered the Bank of Khartoum and opened outlets for it abroad. Furthemore, the Bank of Khartoum and the Nilein Bank have become the two main outlets for foreign dealing.
By the way, economic circles leaked that there is a tendency from the UAE to close the Nilein Bank Abu Dhabi, which means more of the financial blockade imposed on the country, and this means necessary measures should be applied because the Nilein Bank is one of four banks in which Sudan’s foreign trade is conducted (Al Salam Bahrain), the Abu Dhabi Bank, and the Bank of Khartoum, which is the bank in which Dubai Bank has the highest percentage, and these four banks account for more than 90% of foreign transactions in the field of exports, imports and foreign transfers.

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The second goal whose implementation deserves focus is controlling liquidity, especially after the widespread plundering that the country has witnessed. The new policy aims to (reduce inflation rates to double digits by the end of the year 2024 and an average inflation rate of 155% on average during the year 2024, targeting a nominal growth rate in the money supply of 46.9% and a growth in the monetary base of 48.8% by the end of the year.). Perhaps the first executive steps began yesterday when the Central Bank issued a decision to issue a second version of the thousand-pound note, a decision that will be followed by other decisions that we will handle on time. The liquidity control policy will lead to curbing inflation, currently standing at three figures, and the Central Bank aims to reduce it to double digits by reducing the amount of liquidity in the markets. What is important is to strictly follow and enforce these policies to be consistent with the announced budget objectives.
I would like to record a tribute to the Minister of Finance, Jibril Ibrahim, who does the impossible in difficult circumstances, and many people would not like to recognize his work and it is work at in a war economy without resources. It is an unprecedented experience for the state to lose 80% of its resources overnight.
Finally, those who are now shouting and encouraging those carrying Kalashnikov rifles and machineguns, must also adopt the same attitude for those sitting behind the computer screens managing complex work and preserving Sudan’s wealth and the cohesion of the state’s financial system. The workers and departments in the Bank of Sudan and the financial sector deserve all commendation, and hats off to those in Gadarif State.