CBoS Secures Partnership with French Agency to Support Microfinance Sector

Sudanhorizon – Hala Hamza

Well-informed sources have revealed to Sudanhorizon that the Central Bank of Sudan is leading an active initiative to establish partnerships with international and regional organizations to support the country’s microfinance sector.

According to the sources, the Central Bank has sent expressions of interest to financial institutions and banks and has successfully concluded a partnership with the French Development Agency (AFD) to provide credit lines, technical assistance, capacity building, and digital transformation support for banks and microfinance institutions. The initiative is aimed at creating new opportunities for economic recovery and rehabilitating Sudan’s microfinance sector, which has been severely affected by the consequences of the war.

The sources explained that the partnership with AFD includes mobilizing financial resources, providing technical assistance and institutional capacity building, upgrading operational and digital systems, promoting financial inclusion, and preparing microfinance institutions to connect with regional and international funding sources. These measures are expected to enable the institutions to secure sustainable financing and resume their development activities.

The initiative comes at a time when Sudan’s microfinance sector is facing complex challenges, including shrinking loan portfolios, damage to institutional infrastructure, and the disruption of funding sources, all of which have weakened the ability of institutions to continue serving productive sectors across the country.

The sources described the initiative as an effort to address the root causes of the crisis facing the microfinance sector rather than providing only temporary support. They emphasized the importance of training, capacity building, and securing the financing needed to restore institutional operations.

They added that the partnership’s greatest value lies in opening new channels for development finance, enabling microfinance institutions to access concessional credit lines, rebuild their lending portfolios, and resume financing for small-scale producers, farmers, women, and young entrepreneurs, who represent the groups most in need of financial support during the country’s recovery phase.

The sources noted that the success of these efforts would strengthen the confidence of regional and international development finance institutions in Sudan’s financial sector and pave the way for broader partnerships that could contribute to reconstruction, expand financial inclusion, and stimulate economic production.

They concluded that the real measure of the partnership’s success will be the speed with which these efforts are translated into practical programs and tangible financial resources. Success, they said, should not be measured by the number of agreements signed, but by their ability to restore the flow of financing to microfinance institutions and enable them to reclaim their role as a key driver of Sudan’s economic and social development.

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