Bank of South Sudan building reserves to stabilize market, says Dr. Alic

The Governor of the Bank of South Sudan announced that the financial regulator is diligently working to build adequate foreign exchange reserves to stabilize the market.

Dr James Alic Garang says the Bank of South Sudan has ‘some reserves’ but are not enough.

He said as part of the East Africa Community, South Sudan is supposed to meet a target of at least four and a half months of import cover, which no member state has met.

The official added that the war in Sudan has severely affected the oil flow which the country is heavily relying on for revenue.

Dr Alic said the bank in close coordination with the Ministry of Finance and Planning, devising ways to ensure they build reserves.

According to him, they often set aside a portion of the oil-generated revenues for the reserves and use the rest to support the market and government operations.

“We are working with relevant institutions especially with the Ministry of Finance to ensure that we build reserves, Central Bank build reserves in several ways, but in our context, we get dollars from finance, we buy from them and it is those reserves that we use to build our reserves,” Dr Alic told Eye Radio in an exclusive interview over the weekend.

“We have [reserves], but a government would always have some [reserves], the figures are never shared. Rebuilding foreign exchange reserves is one of the key policy measures that we are now working on,” he said.

“Rebuilding reserves is not an easy one because you rebuild based on what you get. So, at the moment, because the oil is shut down, we are not getting a lot, but we are getting something and that small thing.

“We are putting something aside for the rainy day and we are using the rest to support the market and to support the government operations.