Visa moves into Sudan as US sanctions lifted and Al-Bashir gone

New York — Visa is working with selected banks in Sudan to introduce its payments products, the latest Western brand to weigh entering the North African country after the lifting of US sanctions and the overthrow of its long-time dictator.

“Visa is pleased to be building new partnerships that will bring the benefit of Visa’s world-class payment technology to help support financial inclusion and economic growth in Sudan,” Will Stickney, a spokesperson for Visa, said on Monday in an e-mailed statement. He didn’t give more details.

A spokesperson for Sudan’s central bank wasn’t immediately available to comment. Sudan Tribune, a Paris-based website, earlier cited a central bank official as saying several local banks planned to issue Visa cards.

Sudan, where former president Omar al-Bashir was ousted by the army in April after mass protests, is scrambling to reverse its pariah status and rebuild the economy shattered by decades of mismanagement and the loss of much of its oil wealth with South Sudan’s 2011 secession.

Over the past year, a trickle of Western brands have appeared in the capital, Khartoum, most notably local franchises of Yum! Brands’ Pizza Hut and KFC.

Sudan’s international isolation began in 1993 when the US labeled the nation, then ruled by Bashir, a state sponsor of terrorism and later imposed crippling sanctions that lasted until 2017. Africa’s third-largest country, Sudan has a population of 43.1-million and more than 80% of its residents are employed in agriculture.

Visa doesn’t permit financial firms domiciled in countries subject to US Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctions to issue cards on its network. The company said in November that the list still includes Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria and Crimea.

Sudan is still designated a sponsor of terrorism by the US. The transitional government is campaigning for the listing to be dropped, saying it’s preventing any large-scale foreign investment.

With Mohammed Alamin

Bloomberg