Sudan’s Finance Minister Gibril Ibrahim said the World Bank approved a $2 billion grant to be invested in development projects including water, agriculture, roads, education, and health.
In a televised interview on Sunday, Ibrahim said Khartoum is pressuring to receive part of the grant before the start of the WB’s fiscal year in early July to begin implementing its projects.
The WB’s International Development Association (IDA) provided the grant, which is expected to create more jobs, increase production, and raise the country’s GDP from $31 billion to $310 billion.
Khartoum aims to expand job opportunities in the agricultural sector and allocate estimated sums to education and health, Hegazy explained.
The government is currently focusing on developing the infrastructure, increasing electric power, and repairing and expanding roads, he noted.
The guarantees given to the private sector through partnerships enable the financing of large projects in all economic fields, the minister revealed.
Ibrahim expected billions of dollars to be pumped in Sudan's market through investments.
“There is a chance to attain a major boom in production and exports and fill the trade balance deficit through projects in the fields of human development, infrastructure, livestock, agriculture, and mining.”
Economic reforms carried out by the government have already been reviewed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and now a decision is expected to be issued soon on canceling the country’s external debts.
Sudan, where long-time ruler Omar al-Bashir was ousted in 2019 amid a popular uprising, is enacting sweeping reforms to turn around an economy wrecked by decades of corruption, mismanagement, and sanctions.
It seeks relief on more than $50 billion in external debt as creditors exert efforts to push the process forward. Sudan also made understandings with the Paris Club creditors, of whom France, Austria, and the United States are the largest.
