Minister denies granting Sudan’s gold export to one firm

December 29, 2019 (KHARTOUM) – Minister of Finance Ibrahim Al-Badawi denied reports saying he gave the monopoly over Sudan’s gold export to one private company.

Recently, there were reports about a deal signed between the finance ministry and the Al Fakher company granting to the latter the complete monopoly to export of gold abroad.

“There is no special monopoly of Al-Fakher Company providing that it is the only one to purchase and export gold,” Badawi said in a press statement Sunday.

He said that the door is open to all companies without any exception, in order to enhance the government’s efforts with the private sector to provide foreign currency to buy strategic commodities.

Badawi said that the Ministry of Finance is studying offers submitted by over forty companies and business groups to export gold abroad as the state has stopped purchasing and exporting gold leaving it for private firms.

There are no official statistics on the volume of quantities smuggled abroad.

The gold exports represented 37% of Sudan’s total exports in the past three years, according to a report by the Ministry of Minerals.

(ST)