Bank of Khartoum, Sudan's biggest private bank, hopes to benefit from foreign farmland investments in the African country and plans to arrange at least one Islamic bond this year, its general manager said.
In a second expansion step, the bank owned by Dubai Islamic Bank, which the United States removed last week from economic sanctions, plans to tap east African countries such as Kenya or Ethiopia, Fadi Salim Faqih told Reuters.
He said Sudan offered plenty of opportunities for banks despite an economic crisis due to high inflation, poverty, a devalued currency and the looming split from the oil-rich south after an independence vote in January.
Sudan has been long cut off from international markets and investments due to US sanctions and instability, but recently Arab banks and investors mainly from the Gulf have been arriving or exploring farmland investments to secure food supplies.
"Sudan is a very rich country in resources and agriculture. There are huge resources that need to be taken advantage of and properly invested in," Faqih said in an interview at the bank's headquarters in central Khartoum on May 04.
"Many foreign firms are still in a wait-and-see mode. But the economy is becoming more stable," he said.
The Islamic lender hoped to tap investments and project financing from abroad as it is now allowed some dealings with US banks after having been removed from the blacklist because it is no longer controlled by the government.
"The decision will open a lot of business opportunities for the bank," he said.
One area of future growth would the still small market of sukuk issues to finance projects for Arab investors.
The bank expects to arrange at least one more sukuk issue for a government development project in the next several months, he said. It just issued such a sukuk.
To access the south, which is poised to become independent on July 9, Bank of Khartoum plans to open a branch in the future capital Juba very soon. "We can do a lot of services for NGOs. And they need a bank for trade between north and south," he said.
The next step possibly next year would be to expand to neighbouring countries. "The bank is very ambitious to go to look at the region, to eastern and middle African countries," he said, naming Kenya and Ethiopia as possible first steps.
The bank expects its net profit to rise by almost 50 percent this year, slowing from 100 percent last year due to bad debts.