Overcrowding during re-opening of banks in Sudan

During the past three days, banks in Khartoum and a number of state capitals witnessed severe overcrowding.

Following the Central Bank of Sudan's decision to re-open the banks for three days ending on Thursday because of the Eid El Fitir, the feast marking the end of Ramadan, this weekend.

Customers crowded the banks since the early morning hours, activists reported.

Bankers attributed the overcrowding to the Eid El Fitir and the payment of the salary increases of April and the salaries of May. Yet, the main cause, they say, is the daily cash withdrawal ceiling from ATMs that was reduced to SDG 2,000*.

The activists warned against the crowding in the banks and customers not taking into account the social distancing because of Covid-19.

The banks should regularly feed the ATMs, they said. The Central Bank of Sudan should return the daily withdrawal ceiling to SDG 5,000.

Earlier this month, the daily withdrawal maximum of SDG 5,000 was reduced to SDG 2,000. This led to long queues in front of ATMs, government employees in Omdurman told Radio Dabanga on Tuesday.

* USD 1 = SDG 55.1375 at the time of publishing this article. As effective foreign exchange rates can vary in Sudan, Radio Dabanga bases all SDG currency conversions on the daily middle US Dollar rate quoted by the Central Bank of Sudan (CBoS).

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