South Sudanese President Salva Kiir Mayardit has issued an order forming a committee tasked with managing the current economic crisis.
The order comes amid a deficit in the country’s revenues created by the coronavirus pandemic effect on the economy.
Last week, the central bank announced that it had run out of foreign exchange reserves and can no longer stop the pound’s depreciation.
The government gets almost all of its revenue from crude oil, but current output, at about 180,000 barrels per day (bpd), has plummeted from a peak of 250,000 bpd before the outbreak of conflict in 2013, according to official figures.
In an order read out on South Sudan Broadcasting Corporation (SSBC) on Tuesday, President Kiir appointed the vice-president for the economic cluster, James Wani Igga to head the economic crisis committee.
The members of the committee comprise of ministries of finance, trade and industry, petroleum, mining and the governor of Central Bank.
The other members include police inspector general, deputy commissioner of the national revenue authority, director-general of internal security bureau and the dean of the college of economics at the University of Juba.
The president tasked the committee to streamline the collection of non-oil revenues into the government coffers and monitor all financial transactions and payments from the ministry of finance.
The committee was also tasked to make recommendations on the measures to be taken to manage the current economic crisis and reform the economic sector.
The mandate of the crisis management committee will last for three months.