Microfinance in Sudan

The recognition of microfinance as one of the priority sectors for Sudan started only in the mid-1990s. The financing regulations of the Bank of Sudan are still being revised, and lack proper identification of microfinance activities.

In microfinance, traditional Islamic financial products, such as the murabaha,
the salam, the musharaka and the mudaraba play an important role in Sudan. For example, the murabaha is a buy and resell contract, under which the bank purchases the goods ordered from the client and resells it to the customer at a marked-up price, usually on a deferred payment basis. This is the preferred product and is also the closest to standard interest-bearing financial contracts. The salam is also a buy and resell contract, but here the bank purchases the goods from the client, who then delivers the goods in the future. Mainly used for agriculture, the bank pays the farmer on the day the contract is signed and the farmer delivers the crop to the bank after harvest.

A number of banks, NGOs and social funds have been involved with microfinance in the Sudan, and more MFIs are slowly being launched. Over 100 local and foreign NGOs, in direct coordination with gov’t authorities, are active in providing microcredit, emergency loans, medical care and educational services to poor people in the Sudan. In addition, many rural development projects include components of microfinance support.

Microfinance NGOs have been much closer to grassroots operations than have the formal lending institutions. The main NGOs active in microcredit have between 15-20,000 clients and registered repayment rates on average of 85 percent. Their success is often due to being community-based; often having simpler procedures; adopting flexible collateral terms; and sometimes creatively partnering with the formal banking system; they finance a variety of activities, i.e. they are not confined to "productive activities"; and they adopt different microfinance mechanisms and approaches. NGO microfinance institutions face problems, however, in shifting from providing grants to providing credit, when credit is newly introduced to customers after a period of charity-based operations. They also face sustainability problems when moving from donors to commercial sources of funding.

Some of the MFIs making a difference in Sudan include SUMI, the Sudan Microfinance Institution, Aljawda Microfinance Bank launched in December 2007 and Five Talents International, whom have recently launched a program in Sudan. SUMI is an innovative and high-risk microfinance institution based in southern Sudan helping small borrowers eager to grow their fledging businesses. Isaac Sadik, a used clothes dealer and tailor, started his business in 2001 with $40 he had raised by selling a bicycle. “I joined SUMI in November 2003 with a loan of Ush200,000,” says Sadik. “My stock has increased to Ush350,000. In fact, my stall is now too small so I am looking for space to construct another stall.”

Working with a consortium of partners including the Episcopal Church of Sudan, Five Talents will be assisting a village banking project in Wau Diocese, which was started in September 2005, and currently has 270 members. This is one of the first projects of this type in southern Sudan.

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[Air Jordan shoes]

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