Since 2007, the Central Bank of Sudan, microfinance institutions and other stakeholders have worked to institutionalize microfinance practices that comply with Islamic law and are resilient to challenges such as changing political situations, regional stagflation and COVID-19. The regulator required in 2010 that commercial banks allocate at least 12 percent of their lending to microcredit, which is defined as loans of up to USD 2,600, but they only recently met the requirement.

From the end of 2020 to the end of 2021, the number of microfinance clients in the country grew by 100,000 to 580,000. Meanwhile, agricultural microfinance portfolios – largely supporting wheat and sorghum – have grown to a total of USD 54 million, constituting 64 percent of all microfinance loans. Larger agricultural loans of up to USD 5,000 each – designated as “small finance” – total USD 26 million, 55 percent of the entire small finance segment. Most of the funding for these loans comes from deposits. Meanwhile, a diversity of microinsurance options – including takaful – have shown promise, with less than 30 percent of premiums needed to settle claims. Elkhidir Elamin Mohammed, CEO of Sudan’s Al-Fal for Inclusive Finance, argues to MicroCapital that, going forward, the sector must “work more intensively in the aspect of financial education, financial culture and financial technology.”

https://www.microcapital.org/microcapital-brief-microfinance-for-agriculture-in-sudan-reaches-54m/