August 13, 2014 (KHARTOUM) – The governor of the Central Bank of Sudan (CBoS), Abdel-Rahman Hassan Abdel-Rahman, disclosed that Sudan received $1.22 billion in credit guarantees from Qatar following the visit by president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir to Doha last month.

Sudanese president Omer Hassan al-Bashir (L) and the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani in Doha on 8 July 2014 (QNA)

The Qatari newspaper al-Sharq on Tuesday quoted Abdel-Rahman as saying that the governor of the Qatar Central Bank (QCB), Abdullah Bin Saud, agreed to provide Sudan with $500 million in credit guarantees to import Qatari products, noting that the step would encourage Qatari companies and businesses to export their products to Sudan.

The agreement stated that Qatar National Bank would offer $750 million in credit lines to improve Sudan’s financial position and import basic and strategic goods besides stabilizing the exchange rate of the Sudanese pound against major international currencies.

The Sudanese finance minister Badr Al-Deen Mahmoud last April announced that Qatar deposited $1 billion in the CBoS as part of an aid package.

Sudan has been struggling with what was described as an economic shock following the loss of the oil-rich south in July 2011. Oil revenues constituted the majority of Sudan’s exports, national income and source of hard currency.

One US dollar is now trading at 9.4 Sudanese pounds (SDG) in the black market. The official exchange rate is around 5.7 pounds to the dollar.

Qatar has been one of the few countries where Sudan enjoys relatively warm relations with. For years the rich Arab Gulf state has hosted peace talks between the Sudanese government and Darfur rebel groups which eventually resulted in the signing of a peace accord in 2011.

In 2012, Qatar announced that it will inject $2 billion of investments in Sudan including “the purchase of government bonds issued by the Sudanese government and investments in different sectors particularly mining, oil, agriculture and services”.

(ST)