Sudan Central Bank Launches Project to Enhance Financial Inclusion Rates
The Central Bank of Sudan on Thursday launched a project aimed at increasing financial inclusion rates and adapting micro and small enterprises as a starting point for financing the winter agricultural season, with a total amount of 20 billion Sudanese pounds. This began with the signing of two restricted Mudaraba contracts worth 1.8 billion Sudanese pounds with Azm Microfinance Company and Al-Ibtikar Microfinance Bank, as part of the Central Bank’s efforts to enhance and expand financial inclusion, link small-scale producers to formal financial and banking institutions, reduce poverty levels, and increase opportunities for self-employment, in cooperation with the Federal Ministry of Finance and Planning.
This initiative is expected to achieve financial inclusion for 3 million new beneficiaries, integrating them into the formal banking system. It will also help reduce poverty, lower unemployment rates, and create more than 129,000 new job opportunities. In addition, the project aims to increase the empowerment of rural women and female breadwinners by improving their access to formal financial services and enhancing the continuity and sustainability of microfinance institutions and banks in providing services in the short and medium term.
The initiative also includes increasing the contribution of the small and medium enterprise sector to the gross national product.
The Central Bank of Sudan is targeting young entrepreneurs and graduates, farmers with small and medium landholdings, groups and associations of agricultural and livestock producers, female breadwinners, and various solidarity groups.
The project targets several sectors, focusing primarily on the agricultural sector—both crop and livestock production—which will receive 50% of the financing, due to its strong economic and social advantages. The industrial and artisanal sectors follow, with 30% allocated to financing manufacturing industries, and 10% allocated equally to the commercial and services sectors.
The project will cover all states of Sudan.
