Algeria – A large sum in foreign currency (dollars) was seized today at Algiers airport from an Egyptian passenger wishing to return to Egypt on a repatriation flight operated by Egyptair.
Apparently, even the closure of borders and the suspension of flights in Algeria have failed to cut the grass under the feet of those who transfer currency illegally. In fact, customs officials at Algeria’s largest airport, Algiers Houari Boumédiène International Airport, managed to seize a large sum of US currency, the dollar, on Friday October 9th.
According to the Visa-Algeria news site, the amount seized is estimated at $ 48,000. These undeclared thousands of dollars were in the possession of an Egyptian national bound for the Egyptian capital; Cairo aboard a flight operated by the Egyptian airline, EgyptAir.
The informal market in the government’s sights
The automotive sector caused the currency to leak from Algeria to abroad. According to the President of the Republic, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, these actions “almost dragged the national economy down a precipice”. It is for this and other reasons that collecting money from the black market is proving to be a huge challenge for the Algerian government.
Classified as ultimate goal and essential step in the socio-economic recovery; Algeria has therefore decided to speed up recovery tools, aimed at reintegrating the enormous mass of money valued by experts at between 60 and 80 billion dollars; which circulate outside the banking circuit. Thus, measures have been taken to put an end to this problem which continues to haunt the economic growth of the country. Among these measures is the launch of Islamic finance.
Indeed, Moussa Abdellaoui; expert in compliance of banking products with Sharia; lifted the veil on the capital purpose of Islamic finance in Algeria. He therefore said that the latter aims to eliminate the black market, or even suppress the informal sector. And this, by recovering the pharaminous sums of this field to integrate them into the banking circuits of the official economy.
For the record, several voices from experts in economics have been raised over the past few months; asking the authorities to close the “Square”. However, the latter could switch. This is because the government has decided to tighten control over imports of goods and services into Algeria.
