South Sudanese citizens has expressed different reaction over the announcement by the government’s spokesperson to change the country’s currency.
In an exclusive interview with our reporter on Tuesday Josephine Asha Paul said changing of South Sudanese Pound is not a good idea at this difficult time of economic crisis.
According to Asha the country has not yet recovered from crisis and therefore there is no need to come out with another currency.
“South Sudanese Pound is a strong currency since it was introduced in July 8 2011 but the only reason that led to the down fall of the currency is the continuous civil war”, she added.
Another citizen, Gama Hussain Oscar said he is very happy with the decision taken by the government to change the currency.
“Introduction of new currency will improve a lot of things challenging citizens of this country and also because the current SSP has lost its values”, said Gama.
Gama Hussein Oscar called on the government to set up policies to address corruption within the system of government in order to uphold the value of the new currency to be introduced.
Another citizen named Christina said South Sudan is not the only country that has to change its currency after independence, other countries have done that before.
“Many countries have changed their currencies there is no country that remained with her currency for many years. It must be changed so that we may also have some changes in the country. The current South Sudanese pounds lost its value, if you have 10,000SSP for shopping it will not be enough for you . it is better for the SSP to be changed with another strong currency,” she explained.
A civil society activist Wodcan Savior Lazarus, who is also the Executive Director of Support Peace Initiative Development Organization – SPIDO said the government should identify the root cause that led to the worsening economic situation in the country before changing its currency.
Savior attributed the sharp increment of prices of commodities in the market to the mismanagement of non-oil revenue by some officials.
“What caused all this shortage of hard currency, I think they know it much better. Like Central Bank and the Ministry of finance, was it all about the policy because some of this hard currency were not managed in a proper way that is why at the end the country is forced to face tough economic feedback due to mismanagement of income,” He said
As of Tuesday October 13th,2020, the rate of $1 dollar is equivalent to 700SSP in the black market while the official Central bank rate remained at $1 is equivalent to 167SSP.
On Wednesday October 14th, 2020 Morning in Juba some traders refused to sell their commodities to citizens citing the sharp rise on the hard currency in black market.
According to Michael Makuei Lueth, the spokesperson of the government after the Council of Ministers Meeting of Friday Last week, one of the problems facing the economy is that “most citizens are actually hoarding currency in their houses.”
Earlier the United Nations commission on human rights in South Sudan said “a staggering $36 million” has been misappropriated by government officials and senior politicians since 2016.
