Sudan: Economist - 'Sudan Should Channel Half Its Cash Supply Into Sovereign Fund'

What the report says

AllAfrica, carrying a Dabanga report from Port Sudan, says Sudanese economist and university professor Dr Mohamed Sheikhoun has urged a major redesign of Sudan’s economy during an online seminar titled “Reconstruction Plan,” organised by the Mohamed Omer Bashir Centre for Sudanese Studies at Omdurman Ahlia University. Sheikhoun proposed placing about SDG450 billion — half of an estimated SDG900 billion money supply — into a national sovereign wealth fund.

According to the report, Sheikhoun argued that much of Sudan’s cash sits outside the formal banking system and that a fund could support reconstruction, public services, compensation, government operations and more balanced investment across Sudan’s states. He called for development to move beyond Khartoum, including basic industries such as tanneries, abattoirs, grain storage and flour mills in different regions.

Dabanga reports that Sheikhoun linked Sudan’s economic crisis to decades of liberalisation, privatisation, currency depreciation and weak state control over strategic resources. He cited claims that a large share of money supply is held outside banks and used in gold smuggling, export financing and import activity that bypasses the state treasury. He also referred to so-called “grey companies” from the former National Congress Party era, describing them as unregistered or opaque firms that avoided taxes or public accountability.

Sheikhoun also said Sudan should treat gold, remittances and agricultural exports as core sources of foreign exchange. Citing World Bank figures as presented in the seminar, he said Sudan produced hundreds of tonnes of gold over recent years, but much of it was smuggled. His proposals matter because they frame wartime reconstruction not only as rebuilding damaged infrastructure, but as a chance to change who controls national wealth and where investment is directed.