Hamdok receives the first bank visa card issued inside Sudan in 24 years

On Sunday, Sudanese Prime Minister Abdullah Hamdok received the first bank visa card issued inside the country, for the first time since 1997, during the imposition of US economic sanctions on Khartoum.

According to a statement issued by the Council of Ministers, Hamdok received the first bank visa card issued in the country by the United Money Bank (Ahli).

Sudan has been banned from dealing in the system of international bank cards, such as Visa and Mastercard, since the imposition of US economic sanctions on Sudan in 1997.

According to the statement, the CEO of the bank, Youssef Ahmed Al-Tani, confirmed - in a press statement - that the delivery of the first bank visa card comes after the recent political and economic decisions, the most important of which is the unification of the exchange rate.

He explained that this provided the opportunity to provide a global product that would facilitate Sudan's rejoining the global financial domain again.

Received the Prime Minister Dr.

Abdullah Hamdok, the first bank visa card issued in the country by the United Money Bank, handed it to him today in his office headed by the Council of Ministers, CEO of the bank, Mr. Youssef Ahmed Al-Tanni, who confirmed in a press statement that the delivery of the first bank card to Dr. Hamdok ... pic.twitter.com/WSD65zkjBk

- Prime Minister's Office - Sudan (@SudanPMO) March 14, 2021

The card printing comes a year after 3 Sudanese banks obtained licenses from Visa to issue credit cards to Sudanese.

The banks that obtained the license are the Bank of Khartoum, the United Money Bank, and Qatar National Bank.

The Sudanese market has suffered severely, since the imposition of economic sanctions that lasted until 2017, and greatly reduced the entry of foreign investment, and was, among other factors, the collapse of the price of the pound and the revival of the black market.

In the last quarter of 2020, the United States announced the removal of Sudan from the list of states sponsoring terrorism, as it had included the country in it since 1993.

And earlier this month, the Sudanese ambassador to Washington, Noureddine Sati, said that his country had carried out a cash transfer process between Sudan and the United States, for the first time in nearly 24 years.