By: Muawad Mustafa Rashid
According to news articles, the advisor of the 1st Vice President of the Sovereign Council, Faris Al-Nour stated that it is high time to make the dream comes true through working out a plan to establish the Production Bank under the auspices of the 1st Vice President of the Sovereign Council,
The initiative aims at encouraging and providing support to the production in terms of financing small and large scale projects.
The Production Bank targets 10 productive states and will provide financial assistance to some 200 thousands farmers.
We believe that more attention is required for production and its improvement, so the establishment of the bank comes timely and deserves appreciation.
The initiative of the 1st Vice President of the Sovereign Council, 1st Lt. Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Daglo (Himidti) means that we are shifting to the stage in which our senior officials in the transitional government are in touch with the defects of production and productivity.
Some might argue that there are financial institutions which have the same objectives e.g. Farmer’s Bank, Industrial Development Bank, Animal Resources Bank , Real Estate Bank, Saving Bank, Family Bank, etc.
We say, that it is true, but those institutions are not functioning in a professional manner in several aspect a matter that requires intervention for officials of strong will and determination like 1st Lt. Gen. Himidti.
We typically make dozens of decisions a day–what to eat, what to wear, with whom to socialize, short term planning, long-term planning, small and large life decisions and the list goes on.
But some decisions are harder to make than others, whether because of our mood, our motivation, the situation, or the specifics of the decision itself and its implications—we just become stuck. We feel paralyzed and keep putting off the decision, which makes us feel worse and more pressured, which makes us feel even more paralyzed.
It goes without saying that the proposed Production Bank will consider all the objectives of all the similar institutions to avoid any anticipated interactions.
I recall that in 1982 a rural bank financed by the some European countries was established in Sudan under the name Sudan Rural Development Company (SRDC) with the objective of entering into partnerships in small-scale industries e.g. joineries, poultry farms, mixed farms, hand crafts etc. besides providing loans against simple interest to small- scale industries.
The SRDC started its activities successfully through professional European experts, but its activities declined after announcing the Sharia Law which changed the simple interest formula into Murabaha, Musharaka etc. a matter that contradicted with the financial procedures of the shareholders who preferred to withdraw.
Let us hope that the establishment of the Production Bank be the first step towards reforming the complications of financing the small-scale industries, hence upgrade the production and productivity.
Production Bank is a sound initiative which deserve appreciation and support from all concerned institutions.
