Sudanese Campaigns Urge Transfer of Dollars via Banking System

Sudanese shop owners wait for customers at a bazaar in Khartoum, Sudan, June 24, 2019. (Reuters)
Sudanese shop owners wait for customers at a bazaar in Khartoum, Sudan, June 24, 2019. (Reuters)
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Sudanese Campaigns Urge Transfer of Dollars via Banking System

Sudanese shop owners wait for customers at a bazaar in Khartoum, Sudan, June 24, 2019. (Reuters)
Sudanese shop owners wait for customers at a bazaar in Khartoum, Sudan, June 24, 2019. (Reuters)

Campaigns have been launched on social media to support the Sudanese government’s decision on Sunday to adopt a managed float of its currency and unified its fixed exchange rate.

The campaigns called on all the Sudanese abroad and at home to transfer their money through official banks to support the country’s economy and fight traders and speculators in foreign currencies in the black market.

Touring a number of banks and money exchange offices in the capital, Khartoum, Asharq Al-Awsat saw a remarkable turnout of citizens who queued to transfer foreign currencies into the Sudanese pound.

Social media activists rushed to post receipts of the financial transfers in dollars and Saudi riyals. They launched a campaign to encourage the people, urging them to spend their money through official outlets to curb black market practices.

Majdi al-Hajj, an employee at the Faisal Islamic Bank at the University of Khartoum, told Asharq Al-Awsat that the bank transferred money for individuals from euros, US dollars and the Saudi riyal at the new official rate.

He said it was a promising start, adding that he expects the amounts transferred to soon increase.

Meanwhile, the buying and selling activities in the black market saw a remarkable drop due to the lack of demand and the abundance of supply.

A currency dealer in the Arab market in central Khartoum told Asharq Al-Awsat that the “currency trade has weakened significantly, prompting us to reduce the price of the dollar from 390 to 380 pounds,” but he expected the market to recover at any time.

He attributed the price decline in the free market to the lack of demand and the large supply of foreign currencies.

However, he pointed out that banks do not currently meet the needs for foreign currencies.

Secretary-General of the Secretariat of Sudanese Working Abroad (SSWA) Makin Hamid Terrab told Asharq Al-Awsat that the agency held several meetings with the economic sector in the transitional government to discuss the remittances of Sudanese expatriates and immigrants.

Unifying the exchange rate is a positive measure that ensures the flow of remittances, he stressed, noting that they are estimated at a minimum of six billion dollars annually. “It also helps attract foreign capital and international aid.”

He added that solutions are being studied to meet Vision 2021. They include providing assistance to Sudanese abroad in terms of education, housing and health insurance, he said.

The US dollar had been trading at over 350 pounds to the dollar on the black market, while its official rate was at 55 pounds to the dollar.

Following the flotation, local media reported banks were selling the dollar at an average of 375 pounds, and buying the US currency for an average of 390, in an attempt to attract those trading in the unofficial currency market.

The government is hoping to introduce remittances of Sudanese expatriates and immigrants abroad into the formal banking system. Most of these remittances used to be traded in the black market.



Anger Against Trump Is Forecast to Cost the US International Visitors 

Replicas of the Statue of Liberty are displayed for sale in a tourist shop in lower Manhattan on March 28, 2025, in New York City. (AFP)
Replicas of the Statue of Liberty are displayed for sale in a tourist shop in lower Manhattan on March 28, 2025, in New York City. (AFP)
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Anger Against Trump Is Forecast to Cost the US International Visitors 

Replicas of the Statue of Liberty are displayed for sale in a tourist shop in lower Manhattan on March 28, 2025, in New York City. (AFP)
Replicas of the Statue of Liberty are displayed for sale in a tourist shop in lower Manhattan on March 28, 2025, in New York City. (AFP)

Anger over the Trump administration’s tariffs and rhetoric will likely cause international travel to the US to fall even further than expected this year, an influential travel forecasting company said Tuesday.

Tourism Economics said it expects the number of people arriving in the US from abroad to decline by 9.4% this year. That’s almost twice the 5% drop the company forecast at the end of February.

At the beginning of the year, Tourism Economics predicted a booming year for international travel to the US, with visits up 9% from 2024.

But Tourism Economics President Adam Sacks said high-profile lockups of European tourists at the US border in recent weeks have chilled international travelers. Potential visitors have also been angered by tariffs, Trump's stance toward Canada and Greenland, and his heated White House exchange with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

“With each policy development, each rhetorical missive, we’re just seeing unforced error after unforced error in the administration,” Sacks said. “It has a direct impact on international travel to the US.”

The decline will have consequences for airlines, hotels, national parks and other sites frequented by tourists.

Tourism Economics expects travel from Canada to plummet 20% this year, a decline that will be acutely felt in border states like New York and Michigan but also popular tourist destinations like California, Nevada and Florida.

The US Travel Association, a trade group, has also warned about Canadians staying away. Even a 10% reduction in travel from Canada could mean 2.0 million fewer visits, $2.1 billion in lost spending and 14,000 job losses, the group said in February.

Other travel-related companies have noted worrying signs. At its annual shareholder meeting on Monday, Air Canada said bookings to the US were down 10% for the April-September period compared to the same period a year ago.

Sacks said he now expects foreign visitors to spend $9 billion less in the US compared to 2024, when international tourism to the country rose 9.1%.

“The irony is that the tariffs are being put in place to help right the trade deficit, but they're harming the trade balance by causing fewer international travelers to come and spend money here,” Sacks said.

Sacks said international arrivals had been getting close to returning to 2019 numbers, before the coronavirus pandemic halted most travel. Now he thinks they won't get back to that level until 2029.