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      • New Currency Introduced in Sudan

New Currency Introduced in Sudan

10 January - The Central Bank of Sudan has started the circulation of Sudanese pounds as a currency to take over from the dinar, with the swapping process beginning in autonomous South Sudan. The new currency is a result of the north-south peace deal and aims at promoting growth and development.

As of yesterday, residents of the southern part of Sudan could start using the new Sudanese pound, a currency bearing the same name as the country's pre-1992 currency. However, the Central Bank of Sudan today had to admit that "there are currently no swapping points for citizens," meaning that the pound's introduction will not be a quick process.

The new Sudanese pound is worth exactly hundred times the currently used dinar, meaning that 100 dinar bills will be changed into new one-pound banknotes. One-dinar coins - the lowest entity in circulation - will be changed into one-piaster coins. The largest banknotes issued are denominated 50 pounds (approximately euro 18 or US$ 23).

The new bills will first only be circulated in South Sudan - a majority non-Muslim part of the country that won autonomy two years ago following a decades-long north-south civil war. Authorities have given citizens here until 1 July to spend or change their dinars, from which date the old currency will no longer be accepted.

While the new currency was officially launched yesterday, it will not reach most banks before a few days. The Bank of Sudan only yesterday said it had started distributing the new currency to commercial banks and sent consignments of banknotes to the south. "The pound and the dinar are accepted as legal currency side by side during the six month period but check are to be cashed in pounds from the commercial banks," authorities said.

The southern rebels had raised the issue of a new currency during the negotiations that led to the north-south peace two years ago. During the war, which also was fought over religious frontlines, the Khartoum government had changed the Sudanese pound with the current dinar, something southerners saw as just another step in the "Arabisation" of the multi-cultural country.

The dinar as such became one of the symbols of southerners' hatred towards the North. Therefore, the dinar has not been widely circulated in South Sudan, where foreign currencies have been used on local markets.

The Bank of Sudan, in designing the new currency, had been given strict guidelines to assure that the new Sudanese pound become a symbol of peace and progress for the entire country. The north-south peace pointed out that the design of the new currency "shall avoid the following: Human portrait; religious symbols; references to cases of wars and conflicts; and ethnic symbols."

While the new currency primarily is a result of the north-south peace and reconciliation process, Sudanese authorities also hope that the conversion - which is set to cost around US$ 150 million - will also contribute to the country's development by becoming a stronger currency.

"From the economic angle, the currency is changed for economic and monetary reform motives," according to a Bank statement. "The Central Bank uses this instrument to generally assess the volume of currency in circulation in the economy and estimate the demand for money as well as for stimulating the economic activity and activating the payment system."

Also, the government hopes to thwart the whitewashing of billion of dinars in the hands of criminals outside the country - especially in countries neighbouring the south.

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