The Governor of the Bank of South Sudan, Dr. James Alic Garang, has revealed plans to open a new branch of the Central Bank at the Nimule border post.
He made the announcement on Tuesday during a briefing where he said the plan has been in existence since 2019 but was operationalized recently. He said that he sent a team to assess the possibility of establishing a branch of the Central Bank and that management resolved to rent a building to house the branch.
“Since 2019, there has been a plan by the government to open a Central Bank branch in Nimule. Efforts were made but did not succeed,” he said. “However, this time, the bank tried and I sent a team to assess the viability of the Central Bank having a branch in Nimule. So, we resolved to go ahead as the government.”
This move is aimed at collecting non-oil revenues efficiently.
Dr. Alic also revealed that the finance ministry has directed that all illegal roadblocks along the Juba-Nimule Road be removed.
“When my team came back, we decided that it is not easy to set up a branch in one day so we have to rent a place which is now ready,” he stated. “My team told me of the timeline for us to be able to put in place everything including power and the whole system.”
According to Governor Alic, once the Nimule branch of the Bank of South Sudan is functional, the revenue collected at the Nimule border will be directly channeled to the national treasury.
“Once the Central Bank launches operations in Nimule, it is going to be easy and those collecting agencies will not be there anymore. Anybody importing to South Sudan will just come to Central Bank and pay their taxes and then go and clear their goods,” Alic said. “So, this is one way that the government is hoping that once the branch is operational, the revenue collection in Nimule is going to be high.”