On Monday 12th April, Lord Sheikh spoke at the roundtable meeting ‘Sudan: Supporting the Transition’ organised by the Royal African Society. 

“I am a friend of Sudan and have visited the country three times. I established the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Sudan which under my Chairmanship was very active.I have taken two Parliamentary delegations to Sudan.

I have a very good connection with Muslim Charities, and I was able to galvanise Muslim Charities to provide aid in Sudan following the floods.

In fact, I would like to add that one of the Charities of which I am a Patron has provide humanitarian aid and will establish a scholarship for about 6 girls to study at Ahfad University for Women.

I would like to briefly mention a few points regarding Sudan.

Sudan is negotiating with creditors to ease Sudan’s foreign debt which amount to about 62 billion dollars.

The removal of Sudan from the US list has eliminated one of the hurdles for debt forgiveness.

Sudan remains in arrears to the IMF World Bank and the African development Bank and it is difficult for them to receive any fresh funds until this debt is cleared.

Support is therefore needed from donor countries including UK to clear the debt as far as possible and set up a plan to deal with arrears with international Financial institutions.

 I am pleased that Sudan is taking steps to curb the high inflation.

The government is taking steps to reform the exchange rate and devaluing the Sudanese pound.

Sudan had a huge wealth of resources and unexplored opportunities.

I was involved in arranging a Trade Conference at the Institute of Directors in 2017.

In conjunction with Adam Sandhu of DMA we are hoping to organise a Trade Conference remotely. The idea has been endorsed by the government of Sudan and we will work out a date and details of the Conference.

If anyone would like to attend the Conference, please let me know.”