Central Bank of Sudan to return to Siraj payments system

The Central Bank of Sudan (CBoS) has announced that it will return to working via the Total Instant Settlements System (Siraj), making the system available to all banks and dealers with the banking system effective today.

In June, the CBoS established an emergency room for the management of banking procedures as part of measures to tackle the disruptions in banking services caused by the ongoing war. At the time, the CBoS acknowledged the impact of the fighting, vandalism and war-related issues on banks, including electricity outages and communication issues.

The Siraj Total Instant Settlements System is facilitated by a private joint stock company based in Abu Dhabi and regulated by the UAE Central Bank, that provides financial products designed in compliance with Islamic Shariah principles.

As reported by Radio Dabanga last week, the exchange rate of the US dollar against the Sudanese pound recorded a significant increase following a rise in the demand last week – while a sharp decrease in exports since war broke out in the country on April 15 has further led to a shortage of hard currencies.

The dollar rate in the parallel market rose to SDG700 while it reached an average of SDG618 at the banks in the country.