Economist Ahmed Morjan speaks to Eye Radio. January 13, 2023. (Photo: Moses Awan)

A renowned economist has described recently imposed business closures on President Kiir’s endorsement day in Juba as ‘uncivilized’, citing a negative impact on traders’ revenue generation.

Ahmed Morgan is reacting to Saturday’s SPLM rally that endorsed President Salva Kiir as the flag bearer for the December 2024 elections.

During the occasion, business centres and shops were seen closed, and organized forces deployed to the spots and along the highways.

Morgan says such a decision is not in order, economically and affects businesses in terms of revenue generation, thus the country’s Gross Domestic Product.

“If there any forceful closing of businesses because of an occasion or a national occasion where it is a government or an international occasion will always affect businesses very much in terms of their revenue generation capacity and to me, you know, forceful close of businesses looks a bit uncivilized, that doesn’t happen in the civilized world,” said Morgan.

“If there is an occasion, where people feel that they are obliged to attend, then it is voluntarily,” he said.

“When you shut down shops or markets forcefully, there will be a huge loss which these business people will be getting in that circumstance, in terms of their daily sales, in terms of revenue generation, there will be losses, and again in terms of the cost of running businesses.

“Assuming you have a departmental store or big business which employees like five people for instance, in a year you have like four-five of them, then imagine how much losses will be there in terms of revenue and negativity in the GDP,” he concluded.

2023 World Bank report asserts that calculating the economic loss for South Sudan involves considering the average productivity rate, the sectors most affected by holidays, and the specific nature of the holiday.

Morgan advises the government to publicize holidays for traders to plan their sales on time.

“The only way to handle that is to publicize the holidays before time, you know when you make a lot of publicity such that people know the event and then they started planning their purchases and the businesses also,” he said.

He added, “If they want to participate voluntarily, but the forceful closure of business I think is not in order economically.”

The Economy magazine report indicates that the forced closure of the business directly halts the ability to generate sales, leading to immediate revenue losses.