Sudan said on Monday it will introduce a new currency this week, replacing the dinar with a new Sudanese pound as part of a peace deal signed two years ago.
The change official will occur on Wednesday, but Sudanese will have a transitional period until July 1, when dinars will no longer be accepted, said Sabir Mohamed Al Hassan, Governor of the Sudanese Central Bank.
The new currency was agreed to as part of the January 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement, which ended a 21-year war between Sudan’s Muslim government in the north and the mostly Christian rebels in the south.
Many had seen the dinar as representative of the Muslim government, and the peace agreement stipulated that the new currency would be free of religious and ethnic symbols.
The pound was Sudan’s official currency until 15 years ago, and many Sudanese continued to refer to the dinar as a pound.
The currency conversion is expected to cost the government $150-million. The pound is expected to equal 100 Sudanese dinars when it is introduced into circulation on Wednesday. $1 currently equals about 200 dinars. — Sapa-AP