Global payments provider Visa will enter Sudan as the economy begins to liberalise.

Sudan’s finance minister talks to The Banker about how he intends to bring the highly indebted country’s finances back to normality, repair international relations and lift the population out of poverty. 

The government of South Sudan has finally approved a budget for the 2012/13 fiscal year, which began in July, but of greater significance is the newly formed country's negotiations with Sudan over how to transport its vast oil reserves.

African banks are increasingly looking outside of their domestic markets, and many of the continent's biggest lenders are now active in multiple countries, buoyed by greater access to vast unbanked populations and a more stable political environment.

Kenya’s banks have been quick to move into newly independent South Sudan. Although the country is one of the world’s poorest and its infrastructure dire, the opportunities for banking over the next decade are immense, many Kenyan bankers believe, and their efforts are already paying off. 

Conflict, corruption and too many failed businesses left it with a sclerotic banking sector with little appetite for risk, but South Sudan hopes its status as a newly created nation state will encourage investors to rethink their approach to an economy that hopes to underpin its regeneration with its rich reserves of oil.