Fintech Firm Challenges Central Bank License Revocation

Khartoum, August 17, 2026 - Sudanese fintech firm Al Asjad Digital and Smart Solutions said it has taken legal action against the Central Bank of Sudan over the sudden revocation of its operating license, a dispute that highlights regulatory risk in the country's emerging digital payments sector.

Chief Executive Al Asjad Yahya Al-Kazim said the company is challenging the decision in court and preparing separate defamation suits over allegations about its ownership, funding and ties to the United Arab Emirates. She rejected claims that its UAE presence amounted to foreign control or political patronage.

Al-Kazim said the platform was developed from more than a decade of work in Sudan's banking sector and was designed as a national digital payments backbone. She said the company had proposed a public-private build-operate-transfer model that would eventually hand operations to state institutions.

The company says the licensing process took more than a year and included technical, security and operational reviews by the central bank before agreements were signed with domestic lenders. It also says its commercial entities in the UAE, Qatar and Egypt are legally registered and that authorities have not formally ordered them closed.

For investors, the case is a test of Sudan's treatment of private financial technology providers, licensing transparency and the boundary between national security scrutiny and commercial regulation.