Sudan’s Agricultural Bank signs agreements with US companies

The Sudanese Agricultural Bank has signed four agreements with major American companies in the fields of axial irrigation, irrigation pumps, silos, solar energy, and water technology.

“Sudan's regional and global openness is a great opportunity to transfer technology for the development of agricultural sector,” according to the director-general of the Agricultural Bank, Salaheldin Hassan Ahmed.

“The lifting of the [US] economic embargo is a breakthrough for the banking sector in general and for the Agricultural Bank in particular in its capacity as the backbone of the financing of agriculture,” he told the Sudan News Agency (SUNA) after his visit to the USA last week as a member of a delegation of the federal Ministry of Agriculture.

Ahmed said that after the exchange of documents and the opening of an account at “a major US bank”, the agreements will immediately be implemented.

He described the developments as a good beginning of operations with global banks in Europe, the Arab world, and Asia.

In end March, the Sudanese Minister of Agriculture, Dr Ibrahim El Dikheiri, told SUNA after a two-day visit to the USA that Washington promised to support the agricultural sector in Sudan, and would begin to permanently revoke the economic sanctions against Sudan during the coming three months.

Sanctions

In January, just days before leaving office, US President Barak Obama ordered the easing of financial sanctions against Sudan in recognition of “positive actions in countering terrorism”.

The executive order revoked parts of a US trade embargo, in place since the Bill Clinton administration in 1997. President Obama also lifted a freeze on certain assets of Al Bashir's government, in light of Sudan's “positive actions over the past six months.

“These actions include a marked reduction in offensive military activity, culminating in a pledge to maintain a cessation of hostilities in conflict areas in Sudan, and steps toward the improvement of humanitarian access throughout Sudan, as well as cooperation with the United States on addressing regional conflicts and the threat of terrorism,” Obama said at the time.