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By Mohammad Salim
MOSUL, Iraq – Since jihadists were ousted from Mosul last year, taxi driver Abu Aref has transported more than just passengers in the second city of Iraq: he regularly passes envelopes filled with air. # 39; money.
Thus wages are paid and bills settled in the northern metropolis, despite the reopening of banks since the Iraqi forces took over last year from the Islamic State group after three years of jihadist rule.
The Iraqi authorities, fearing that the free flow of money will be used to finance the return of the Islamic State, have not even authorized transfers.
Mosul banks, foreign exchange bureaus and money-transfer companies have thus watched helplessly as more rudimentary methods are filling the gaps.
Abu Aref said that he usually carried between $ 10,000 and $ 50,000 in his taxi.
"I put the money in an envelope that I then stuck under my seat," he told AFP.
The trip can be risky. One of his colleagues was recently robbed on a 200-kilometer road between Mosul and Baiji further south.
"Despite the risks, the businessmen give me so much money because they have no choice," said the 35-year-old.
ISIS invaded Mosul in 2014, seizing several hundred million dollars from a branch of the Iraqi central bank and other financial institutions.
Mosul returned to Iraqi government control in July 2017 after a multi-month assault that devastated its infrastructure, but ISIS cells appear to remain active.
Security forces last month arrested nearly a dozen members of an Iraqi-based Islamic state financial network, according to a US-led coalition against jihadists in Iraq and in Syria.
The central bank did not hesitate to resume operations in Mosul, saying it wanted to know "where this money came from and where it was going".
– in Baghdad and beyond –
About twenty private and state banks have reopened in Mosul, allowing residents to open an account, deposit and withdraw money and issue checks.
But the central bank has not waived its ban on transfers to and from the city.
This decision appears to have hurt business leaders who were trying to revive economic activity in Mosul, a centuries-old trade hub providing access to the Iraqi, Turkish and Syrian markets.
Among them is Abdullah Basman, a native of Mosul who sells computer parts imported from other parts of Iraq and Dubai.
To pay the suppliers, he hands over money envelopes to a driver whom he trusts, who sends the money to Baghdad and forwards it to other Iraqi or international cities to pay the bills. store.
"The banks in Mosul are just buildings, nothing more," said Basman, 27.
For Abu Akram, an employee of the company, the ban on bank transfers means he often spends months without pay, which comes from his company's headquarters in Baghdad.
Aged 35, this man relies on friends of his family who roam the 400 kilometers of dust that grow south of Baghdad or go to neighboring Iraqi Kurdistan to recover his money.
But there is hiccups.
"Sometimes my company refuses to give my salary to anyone other than me.With a taxi, there is a risk of accident or theft," said Abu Akram at the airport. 39; AFP.
The banks may be dark, but the Mosul markets are bright and busy. Photo: Zaid al-Obeidi / AFP
– Quiet banks, markets in vogue –
According to the World Bank, the banks' reach in Mosul seems to be comparable to that of Iraq, where only one in ten people has an account.
"The Iraqi banking system is underdeveloped, dominated by inefficient state-owned banks, some of which would run out of capital and give little credit to the private sector," a multilateral lender wrote in a recent report.
"Private banks are small and they are mainly active in foreign exchange and electronic transfers."
Despite the difficulties, Iraqi economist Rafea Ahmed said that many companies and investors had already resumed their activities in Mosul.
"They quickly returned their money in their own way," he said.
Secret transfers even continued during the Islamic State's reign over the city, with family members living in Baghdad finding ways to smuggle money to relatives stranded in Mosul.
According to Ahmed, some of this money has contributed to the rebirth already visible in Mosul.
Although banks are sitting empty, restaurants, shopping malls and open markets are now very busy.
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