Khartoum- The National Council of Ministers has directed stoppage of importation of flour and cessation of issuance of any new licenses for the flour mills sector.

The Council has also directed preventing use of flour earmarked for bread production for any other purpose as it also ordered adoption of regulations for exports of locally produced flour and taking measures that prevent trafficking of this consumer commodity.
The National Council of Ministers approved in its regular session, chaired by First Vice President and Prime Minister Gen. Bakri Hassan Saleh, Wednesday a report on flour mills industry, which was presented by Industry Minister Dr. Mousa Karamah.
Secretary General of the Council of Ministers Dr. Omer Mohamed Salih said the Minister of Industry has explained in his report that the volume of investments in this industry has amounted to two billion dollars, with a designing production capacity of more than 7.3 million tons annually, while the national consumption does not exceed two million tons.
Despite this the country imports big quantities of flour that amounted to 772000 tons in 2016, the Minister added, saying that this makes the national flour mills operate at low capacity that does not exceed 29% of their designing capacity which consequently leads to high cost of imported flour and existence of loss in the added value.
Meanwhile, the Council of Ministers also approved a report presented by Minister of Human Resources Development Dr. Al Sadik Al Hadi Al Mahdi on the performance of the National Bureau of Graduates’ Employment for the year 2016.
The Minister explained that more than 24690 graduates underwent training in various fields last year, while some 2166 projects were implemented during the same period that covered more than 3430 graduates.
Secretary General of the Council of Ministers Dr. Omer Mohamed Salih said the Council has lauded the role of the Ministry and the Bureau in providing self-employment for the graduates, directing expanding financing of graduates’ projects, especially in the agricultural and industrial fields as well as disseminating the culture of business among the graduates besides taking the required measures for guaranteeing the success of these projects.