Sudanese Gold and Al-Baz’s Billions… From a ‘Rent-Seeking Economy’ to a ‘Value-Based Structure’

Dr Al-Haytham Al-Kindi Yousif
I have read the article by Adel Al-Baz, in which he asks: “Who is responsible for squandering $10 billion?” It is a legitimate question that directly touches the current crisis. The figures he presents are as alarming as they are motivating, prompting me to place them within the broader framework I am developing—namely, the transition from a “rent-seeking state” to a “value-based state.”
If gold can generate revenues of up to $13 billion, then we are dealing with a resource that exceeds Sudan’s oil revenues during the early 2000s, when production approached 500,000 barrels per day and generated around $11 billion annually.
That oil era brought exchange rate stability—the dollar hovered at around two Sudanese pounds for years—and supported infrastructure development. Yet it also planted the seeds of today’s failure, in what economists term the “Dutch disease”: over-reliance on a single, exhaustible resource paralysed other productive sectors. The secession of South Sudan in 2011 was the shock that exposed the fragility of an economy unprepared for life after oil.
It is true that oil revenues largely accrued to the state, with a smaller share going to foreign partners. Gold, by contrast, is predominantly produced through artisanal mining, meaning that the state’s direct share is limited—though its contribution to the trade balance remains significant, and thus influential on exchange rates.
Al-Baz has proposed measures that could enhance the state’s benefit from gold, and in that respect, his recommendations are, in my view, sound.
Beyond Mismanagement: A Crisis of Vision
However, in answering his central question, while many—including Al-Baz—attribute the loss of gold revenues to poor management, I believe the problem is deeper than administrative shortcomings or governmental confusion.
The real issue lies in the absence of a comprehensive national vision, not merely the failure of the executive apparatus.
Management answers the question “how do we act?”
Vision answers “why do we act, and where are we heading?”
Tanzania did not succeed merely because it had efficient management, but because it adopted a sovereign vision: treating minerals as the property of the people and as a tool to build reserves that protect the national currency.
In Sudan, by contrast, there is a deliberate blurring of vision. Power centres and vested interests benefit from administrative ambiguity—a fluid system that neither enforces accountability nor ensures transparency. Therefore, placing sole responsibility on the Prime Minister is misleading. The crisis is fundamentally a crisis of state will, in which cross-border networks of smuggling and corruption have captured economic decision-making.
The Overlooked Dimension: Regional Rights
Another critical point overlooked in the article is the rights of producing regions.
A transition to a “value-based state” requires that citizens in mining areas feel that gold is not a curse—polluting their environment while enriching the centre—but a developmental asset that first uplifts their local communities.
Even if, under the current wartime conditions, such considerations are temporarily set aside, the future must rest on a new social and economic contract that guarantees fair regional shares.
The Core Lesson: Resource Direction
The most important lesson from the oil era is not revenue itself, but how it is directed.
Gold revenues should not be used merely to plug budget deficits or finance consumer imports. Instead, they must drive renewable productive sectors, including:
agriculture
agro-processing industries
and continued exploration of oil and other resources
We must transform gold into tangible, lasting value:
factories
slaughterhouses
grain silos
modern irrigation systems
advanced agricultural technologies
This is the essence of moving from a rent-seeking state, living off what lies beneath the الأرض, to a value-producing state, building wealth through the labour of its people above it.
A Responsibility to Future Generations
Finally, we must not forget: this gold does not belong solely to our generation to squander in wars and mismanagement. It is the capital of future generations.
The least we owe our children is a nation:
safe from fear
secure from hunger
united behind a vision of production and justice
We are not asking for a miracle. We are demanding the minimum: national sovereignty over our resources.
Integrating $10 billion into the national economy is not a routine financial step—it is a necessary surgical operation to save the body of the Sudanese state from decay.

Shortlink: https://sudanhorizon.com/?p=13763