“No access to funds” when the most important “banking” application in Sudan crashes

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What happens when a person has money in his bank account, but cannot access it? This is the condition of millions of Sudanese after the disruptions in banking applications, led by the “Bankak” application, affiliated with the Bank of Khartoum, turned into a crisis affecting the details of daily life, from transportation and fuel to treatment and purchasing basic needs, all the way to government transactions and electronic collection.

Over the past few days, Sudanese citizens have found themselves facing a dilemma that goes beyond the disruption of a banking service; The money is in the accounts, but accessing it or transferring it to beneficiaries has become very difficult, at a time when the crisis coincides with a scarcity of cash and fuel.

In a country exhausted by war since April 2023, banking applications are no longer just a modern means of transferring money, but rather have become an essential lifeline for managing daily life. When it malfunctions, a patient may find it difficult to obtain treatment, a family may be unable to afford food, or a traveler may have trouble paying his fare.

In this context, citizen Issa Abdel Aziz described the crisis of disruption of banking applications such as the “Your Bank” application as “a disaster in every sense of the word.” He said in statements to Al Arabiya.net/Al Hadath.net, "What is happening goes beyond the inconvenience caused by the suspension of a banking application to suffering that affects people's lives and their ability to face emergency circumstances."

Issa also recalled the incident of a patient who needed urgent surgery, but the application crash and the scarcity of available cash made collecting the required amount extremely difficult. In such cases, the family's ability to act may depend on a financial transfer that is supposed to take seconds, but turns into a long wait in light of the service disruption.

In addition, he summarized the extent of the crisis in terms that reflected the pressures facing citizens, saying, “The market has been completely closed, and even restaurants are no longer available as they should be, while cash is not available and your bank service is not working as required.”

Issa also emphasized that, “Under normal circumstances, a malfunction of the application may mean postponing a purchase or transferring it to a later time, but in light of war and scarcity of liquidity, it may result in the disruption of needs that cannot be postponed.”

For his part, citizen Samir Muhammad Ali, from Khartoum, said that the problems with the application’s malfunction have become clear, and that citizens have begun to express their dissatisfaction with the matter, especially since most of them have become dependent on it for the details of their daily lives.

He also added that the money that people manage through the application is related to the expenses of children, home, treatment, shopping, and other daily needs, noting that the amount of dependence has led some to think about changing the application and moving to other banking alternatives, but the problem does not end easily when changing the application. Samir added that the nature of the problem seemed technical to him, stressing at the same time that he did not know the banking policies related to it.

The "Bank" crisis did not occur in isolation from an extremely difficult economic and living reality; The Sudanese citizen faces high costs of living, disruption of transport and trade, and scarcity of cash in some areas, in addition to the effects of the war that has pushed large numbers of the population to displacement and changed their sources of income and ways of obtaining services.

With the decline in the ability to rely on paper cash, banking applications have become a major means of exchanging money and settling payments, making their disruption a problem that goes beyond the technical aspect to markets, transportation, and daily needs.

In addition, a source familiar with bank transfer transactions confirmed to Al Arabiya.net/Al Hadath.net that “your bank’s disturbances have increased the complications of the fuel crisis, which has continued for more than a month and continues, as access to the funds necessary to buy fuel or pay transportation costs has become more difficult for some citizens.”

The Ministry of Energy and Oil also attributed the crowding at refueling stations to several factors, including fluctuations and slowness in banking applications, such as the “Your Bank” application, which, according to the Ministry, led to a slowdown in payment and purchase processes inside the stations and an accumulation of cars.

The impact of the crisis did not stop at citizens’ transactions and markets, but rather extended to government collections themselves. In this context, one of the speakers about the crisis said that the failure of “Your Bank” may hinder government collection and payment transactions through the “Isali” system, warning of a potential huge financial loss to the state.

The spokesman also added, in reference to customers’ suffering from service interruption for long hours or days: “It is not reasonable for a banking application to remain down for a full day or two, until a person can make a financial transfer,” in an expression that summarizes how the failure of a banking application can disrupt financial transactions that go beyond the needs of individuals for public interests.

The use of “Your Bank” is not limited to household expenses and transfers, as citizens depend on it to pay the costs of transportation, treatment, fuel, medical examinations, medicines, and even some transportation services and public vehicles. In light of the scarcity of liquidity, alternatives become limited for customers who do not maintain sufficient cash balances or do not have other bank accounts. Thus, the phone, which was a means of facilitating transactions, turns into a choke point when the service on which its owner relies is disrupted.

As the crisis intensified, the Bank of Khartoum acknowledged the occurrence of disturbances in the “Your Bank” service, and apologized to customers, saying that the application had become “an essential part of your daily life,” and that it appreciated the users’ trust and apologized for the inconvenience caused by the fluctuation that the service had witnessed during the last period. The bank also confirmed that its teams remained active around the clock to address the challenges and achieve stability in the service.

But the apology left questions beyond acknowledging the occurrence of the disorder: What are the reasons for its recurrence? What are the procedures that ensure the stability of the service? Are there alternative plans that allow customers to access their funds when the application stops? Questions have also arisen regarding how to deal with urgent transactions during periods of downtime, and whether there are alternative channels that can be relied upon, as well as the rights of customers if they suffer damage as a result of service disruption.

Meanwhile, economic researcher Dr. Haitham Muhammad Fathi saw that “the widespread reliance on a single banking application in this way to complete daily transactions creates an exceptional situation, because service disruption can paralyze buying and selling operations and the provision of basic needs.”

He also pointed out in statements to Al Arabiya.net/Al Hadath.net that the Sudanese economy depends to a large extent on quick financial settlements, at a time when the scarcity of cash has led to increased reliance on digital channels. Therefore, downtime of the application may stop transactions completely when the user has no other means of payment or transfer.

He added that the war has expanded dependence on banking applications, including among Sudanese living abroad who use remittances to help their families and cover their needs. Thus, the effects of the unrest may extend to people outside Sudan whose families inside depend on the money transferred to them.

In addition, Haitham pointed out that having multiple bank accounts may allow some customers to move to another application when the service is disrupted, but this option is not available to everyone, and additional accounts do not guarantee overcoming the problem if there are common obstacles in the banking structure, communications, or payment systems. The problem, according to this perception, lies in the gap between the speed of transition to digital services and the availability of alternatives that protect users from sudden interruption. The expansion of electronic payment facilitates transactions and reduces the need to carry cash, but it becomes a source of pressure when broad needs are linked to a single service or a limited number of channels.

While a commercial and service business owner told Al Arabiya.net, requesting that his name not be published, before the spread of banking applications, some Sudanese used to use mobile phone balance to transfer small amounts or settle some daily transactions. With the expansion of electronic banking services, a large portion of these transactions moved to banking applications, which made it possible to transfer money and make payments via phones.

But the digital transformation raised questions about the system’s ability to deal with malfunctions and provide alternative options. Some customers proposed the idea of ​​establishing a unified electronic platform or an interconnected payment system, under the supervision of the Central Bank of Sudan, that would allow linking banks and provide alternative channels when an application malfunctions.

While engineer Walid Siddiq, a specialist in electronic systems and computer engineering, explained to Al Arabiya.net/Al Hadath.net that the banking applications crisis may combine technical and banking factors, and cannot necessarily be explained by a single reason. He pointed out that technical failures remain an important factor, but he does not rule out the presence of problems related to banking policies or transaction implementation mechanisms. He also talks about the possibility that some of the measures are linked to attempts to limit the activity of currency traders and put pressure on significant increases in the price of the dollar, but he does not present this as a confirmed reason for the application to malfunction.

While he warned that procedures related to financial transactions may lead to adverse results if they disrupt the movement of funds or confuse users, especially in an economy where many rely on electronic transfers to cover their daily needs. Walid stressed that the stability of banking applications requires reviewing servers and systems, performing regular maintenance and updates, clearly defining technical and administrative responsibilities, and having oversight and accounting mechanisms that ensure faults are addressed in a timely manner.

He also pointed out that the main servers of the Bank of Khartoum are located outside Sudan, according to the information available to him, but he confirms that he does not have confirmed information about the party responsible for maintaining them. Therefore, it cannot be certain that the location of the servers or the entity managing them is the cause of the crisis.

For his part, Dr. Haitham Muhammad Fathi believed that the unrest could involve technical, security and political factors, in addition to varying capabilities of banking applications and weak Internet infrastructure.

While some citizens circulated explanations linking liquidity scarcity or remittance disturbances to attempts to control the price of the dollar, these explanations remain speculation unless supported by clear official data or statements. Identifying the causes of disruption remains essential to understanding the crisis and determining responsibilities, rather than being satisfied with uncertain explanations.

In a country exhausted by war, application crashes are not just minutes wasted in front of the phone screen. Those minutes could mean a traveler being delayed, difficulty getting treatment, or a family waiting for urgently needed money. The effects may extend to the country itself if payment and collection channels related to taxes, customs, and public fees are disrupted.

Therefore, the most important question is no longer just: When will “your bank” return? Rather: What happens to the Sudanese when the application stops again, while his life and needs, and perhaps government transactions that depend on electronic payment, hang on a button on his phone screen?