Sudanese government to privatise five sugar production companies

The Sudanese government intends to sell off five sugar production companies at a value of nearly $2 billion, government sources have said.

Chairman of the government committee to manage public sector affairs, Abdul Rahman Nooruddin, said during a press statement on Saturday that the committee has prepared a study on which companies will be privatised.

He explained that the government has privatised 143 government companies since 1990 in several areas, including more than 30 companies affiliated with the security services.

Chairman of the Finance Committee in the parliament, Ali Mahmoud, said that the value of privatised companies amounted to about £1.88 billion ($300 million).

The Sudanese government seeks to strengthen the private sector and benefit from the partial lifting of US economic sanctions, but economists have been critical, arguing that the privatisation process lacks transparency.

Read more: US sanctions not the cause of Sudan’s economic problem

Professor of economics at the Sudan University of Science and Technology, Abdul Atheem Al-Mahal told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed news site that the privatisation of government companies was not done in accordance with internationally accepted standards and procedures.

“The privatisation [has been] conducted in a biased manner. The state sells profitable companies and retains the losing ones,” he said adding that “some companies were not sold at market price while some productive companies became unproductive after the privatisation”.

Al-Mahal called for an assessment of previous privatisation procedures, especially with respect to the financial aspect, employment and added value and contribution to national output and exports.