Sudan Academy for Banking & Financial Sciences (SABFS-Sudan)

Origin and Evolution The Banking Institution was founded in 1963 by a joint effort from the Sudan Central Bank and other commercial or specialized banks to train banks employees, to provide knowledge and skills necessary for qualifying these emplo ge and skills necessary for qualifying these employees to hold key posts in banks. Later after a comprehensive evaluation of the situation, decision was made that the Institution confine its job to providing bank employees with theoretical banking knowledge and to leave the practical side to be taken care of on the job. The Institute curricula was agreed upon after through examination of curricula of similar institutes, especially the British Banking Institutes ( which exempted the Institution graduates from sitting to Part One of the British Banking Diploma) It is worthwhile to mention that the Institute curricula was checked by the British expert , Mr. Morris and some renowned Sudanese banking personnel. In 1993 the governor of Sudan Central Bank formed a committee to find out whether the Institute is qualified to cope with Banking Islamilization which started in the seventies and reached its climax in the nineties. So, the Institute curricula was changed to cope with its new mission, which is, to achieve the objectives of the new banking system and attain local and international recognition. Thus, a decree was issued to upgrade the status of the Institute to be a Higher Banking Institute in 1993, and Islamic Shariya as a curriculum subject was adopted to match the Islamic Banking System to that of modern Banking Technology, in an endeavor to train bankers who are cognizant with both banking technology and Islamic laws. The first B.Sc enrollees were registered in the academic year 1993/94 (164 students) and they graduated in the years 1996/97. The Higher Institute dealt seriously with its mission, an action which attracted and encouraged hundreds of students to join the Institute. This can easily noticed with a quick glance at the figures of enrollees during the last decade; it will be noticed that the intensive enrollment pushed up the number of B Sc students within the years 1994-2001 to 7364, and the number of Intermediate Diploma students to 1601. The Institute allowed admission of banks employees as ( mature students), and consequently 2139 mature students were registered for the B.Sc and 2535 for the Diploma Program. The total number of the Institute graduates since its establishment (1993 till 2002), was1769;1339 of whom obtained BSc degrees and 430 got Diploma certificates. And to increase the chances of employment to its graduates, the Institute added a separate Insurance program for its students, and the first batch of this program graduated in the year 2004. The Institute was also involved in training programs (2-4 weeks) to banking employees, and at the end of these training courses certificates and/or diplomas were awarded. The Institute was very much aware of the role research displays in the development of banking industry, so it established a secretariat for research and documentation to conduct research and organize symposiums and forums ,and to issue Banking and Financial Studies magazine, which is a refereed biannual magazine. The secretariat also documents the Islamic Banking activities in Sudan and project it to the rest of the Islamic World. In the year 2003 higher studies for Masters and Higher Diplomas started in collaboration with Sudan University for Science and Technology. ...view more