How to Open a Bank Account in Sudan (2026)

The rules are broader than the folklore

Ask around and you will be told you need a national ID card to open a bank account in Sudan. That is what most people believe, and for anyone who lost documents during the war it sounds like a closed door.

It is not what the rules say.

The requirements come from CBOS Circular No. 8/2014, which sets the customer due diligence standards every supervised institution must meet. For an individual customer, it requires a valid official identity document — and then lists what qualifies:

"national identity card, driver's license, military card, judicial card, Police card, residency papers, passport or travel document"

That is eight categories, not one. A driving licence qualifies. So does a military card, a judicial card, a police card, residency papers, or a travel document. If you have any one of them, you are not automatically shut out — whatever you have been told.

This matters most for exactly the people most likely to be told otherwise. Before going further, one prerequisite that never changes: make sure the institution you are dealing with is licensed, using the method in our guide to checking a bank or lender is licensed.

What the bank has to collect

Alongside an identity document, the circular requires the bank to record a defined set of information about you: full name, nationality, date of birth, permanent address, telephone numbers, work address, type of activity, the purpose of the business relationship, and details of anyone you authorise to act on the account.

It is worth understanding why a bank asks questions that can feel intrusive — particularly "what is this account for?" and "what do you do?". Those are not the clerk being difficult. They are regulatory requirements the institution has to satisfy, and a bank that skipped them would be in breach.

For customers assessed as higher risk, the circular requires more: the source of funds and the source and nature of wealth. If you are asked to explain where money is coming from, that is the enhanced standard being applied, not an accusation.

The branch route: what a bank adds on top

CBOS sets the floor. Individual banks build on it, and this is where people get caught out — because what a bank asks for can exceed what the regulation strictly requires.

Bank of Khartoum's published current account requirements are a good worked example. To open at a branch, it lists:

• Valid ID proof
• A salary certificate, or documentation of self-employed or self-professional business, or other proof of income
• Two references
• An amount for deposit

Read that list again, because two items on it are not in the circular at all.

Two references is a bank-level requirement, and for someone who has recently moved to a new city — or whose former colleagues and neighbours are scattered — it can be harder to satisfy than the identity document. Ask early who can serve as a reference and what form it must take, rather than discovering the requirement at the counter.

Income proof is the second. A salary certificate assumes formal employment. If you trade informally, ask what the bank accepts under "others" before you assume you cannot qualify.

The bank does not publish a minimum opening balance, so ask. On fees, its page details none except that a second ATM card carries a fee. The account itself comes with a card usable free at the bank's own ATMs, electronic banking, a chequebook, and — as with every licensed Sudanese bank — it is Sharia-compliant, the framework explained in our guide to the basics of Sudanese banking.

The online route asks for different papers

Here is the finding that most repays reading both of a bank's pages rather than one.

Bank of Khartoum also offers online account opening. The process runs through a portal: enter your personal and contact details, upload documents, verify your identity "through our secure video or ID process", complete the account details, submit your signature, and receive your account number.

The documents it asks for are different from the branch list:

"A valid Sudanese National ID or Passport (Both valid and expired passport are accepted)."

Plus a mobile number and an email address. No references. No income certificate.

And note the parenthesis, because it is doing a great deal of work: an expired passport is accepted. For someone who left home in a hurry with an out-of-date passport and nothing else, that single line may be the difference between having a bank account and not having one.

So the two routes trade off against each other:

Neither route is simply easier. Which one works depends on which papers you still hold. If you have a driving licence but no passport, the branch route is your path. If you have an expired passport but no references and no salary certificate, the online route may be the only one open to you.

That is not a distinction any bank advertises. It only appears if you read both pages — which almost nobody does.

Two warnings the bank states plainly for the online route: do not submit multiple applications using the same ID, and do not submit altered documents, which will be rejected.

Accounts that cannot legally exist

The circular is absolute on two points, and they are worth knowing because they are also a scam filter.

An institution "is not allowed to open, retain, or deal with any numbered accounts", and it "is not allowed to open or retain anonymous accounts or accounts under fictitious names".

So if anyone offers to arrange an account in another name, an anonymous account, or a "numbered" account for privacy, they are describing something no licensed Sudanese institution may lawfully provide. Treat the offer as what it is. The same goes for anyone offering to open an account for you using their own documents — that is not a shortcut, it is an arrangement in which you have no legal claim to the money.

Businesses, joint accounts and inheritance

A joint account requires identification papers for each partner, and the bank must record whether the account is managed individually or jointly. Settle that question deliberately: it decides whether one holder can act alone.

A business account needs considerably more — a certificate of incorporation or other proof of official existence, a commercial licence, the articles of association and bylaws, a board decision to open the account, a board decision appointing signatories and their limits, and the names and addresses of partners or shareholders. If you have not yet registered, that comes first; our guide to registering a business in Sudan covers the Commercial Registrar route and the tax and social-insurance steps that follow.

An inheritance account requires a Decree of Distribution, identification for each inheritance manager, and designation either by a Sharia court decision or by the Director General of Inheritance Affairs.

One gap worth naming: Circular 8/2014 does not address accounts for minors, and we did not find a Sudanese primary source that does. Ask the bank directly rather than relying on general practice from elsewhere.

If you are short a document

There is no way to write this section that promises an outcome, and we will not pretend otherwise. But there are sensible moves:

• Work out which route your documents actually fit before you queue. The table above is the whole point.
• Check every document you hold against the full list. A driving licence or police card may qualify where you assumed only a national ID would.
• Ask specifically about expired documents, naming the document you have. The allowance we found is specific to passports on one bank's online route — do not assume it extends to expired national ID cards.
• Ask more than one bank. Requirements above the CBOS floor are set per institution, so a refusal at one is not a refusal everywhere. If your usual bank is unreachable, our guide to choosing a bank when your branch is unreachable covers how to shortlist alternatives.
• Ask what would satisfy them, rather than accepting a flat no. The staff member knows what their policy permits.

Once open, decide what the account is actually for. A current account is for moving money; if you also want to put savings to work, the products and the questions that make them comparable are covered in our guide to comparing profit-sharing savings accounts, and you can see what accounts are available. Day to day, most people will operate through an app — our explainer on how Bankak works covers the dominant one.

Frequently asked questions

Do I definitely need a national ID card? No. CBOS Circular 8/2014 accepts a national identity card, driver's licence, military card, judicial card, police card, residency papers, passport or travel document. Any one valid official document from that list satisfies the identity requirement — though an individual bank may ask for more on top.

Can I open an account with an expired passport? Bank of Khartoum's online onboarding expressly accepts both valid and expired passports. That is one bank's stated policy on one route, so confirm before relying on it, and do not assume the same allowance applies to an expired national ID card.

Why does the bank want two references? That is a bank-level requirement rather than a CBOS one — it appears on Bank of Khartoum's branch current-account list, not in the circular. Requirements above the regulatory floor differ between banks, which is a good reason to ask more than one.

Why is the bank asking what I do for a living and what the account is for? Because the circular requires it. The bank must record your activity type, work address and the purpose of the business relationship. For customers assessed as higher risk it must also establish the source of funds and the nature of your wealth.

Can someone open an account in a different name, or an anonymous one? No. Licensed institutions are prohibited from opening or keeping anonymous accounts, accounts in fictitious names, or numbered accounts. Anyone offering to arrange one is not offering a legitimate banking service.

I'm displaced and lost my documents. Is there anything for me? Start by checking everything you still hold against the full list above, then ask more than one bank and ask about both the branch and online routes, since they accept different documents. We could not establish whether any wartime dispensation exists for displaced people without documents, so ask the bank and CBOS directly rather than assuming the answer either way.

Reviewed 2 August 2026. Account-opening requirements are set by each bank above the CBOS floor and change without notice — confirm the current position with the bank concerned before travelling to a branch. More guides are collected on the Rateweb blog.

This article is general information, not financial advice, and does not take your personal circumstances into account.