The President of South Sudan, Salva Kiir Mayardit has formed a committee to manage the financial crisis the government is going through.
Formed on Tuesday, the committee led by the Vice President, Dr. James Wani Igga comprises of minister of trade, minister of petroleum, minister of finance, police inspector, director of national security service, governor of central bank, deputy director of revenue authority and vice chancellor of the university of Juba.
Information minister and government’s Spokesperson, Michael Makuei Lueth says the committee will be responsible for government spendings.
Asked about how the committee is going to improve the economy, the minster has not much to say.
“I cannot explain more because I’m not the decree maker. I’m not part of the committee too. Number three we cannot prejudge at the time the president has decided to do so and he appointed members who will be doing it,” the minister said.
On Monday, the Deputy minister of Agriculture and a member of economic cluster, Lily Albino Akol announced government’s plan to borrow 250 million US Dollars to fix budget deficit.
Last week, a senior official of the central bank of South Sudan told the press that the bank run out of foreign reserves and that they could not stabilize the exchange rate of pounds against dollar.
South Sudanese Pound continues to depreciate against USD and other foreign currencies. The rate of a dollar per pound is about 400 SSP in the black market.
The country majorly relies on oil proceeds for almost everything.
But oil production dropped from about 250, 000 barrels to 180,000 barrels a day due to the Coronavirus pandemic, according to petroleum ministry, exacerbating the economic crisis.