South Sudan’s Cabinet Minister Martin Elia Lomuro has accused some managers of commercial banks of black market currency trading.
Speaking to Radio Tamazuj, Lomuro stated that some of the commercial banks exist only to access dollars from the central bank in order to trade them on the black market for profit.
“There are banks working in the black market, they are supposed to help the citizens to open investment accounts not current accounts only,” he said. “They open the bank in order access dollars from the central bank.”
There is a severe dollar shortage in South Sudan, with most citizens only able to access foreign exchange on the black market at a rate six times that which is made available to commercial banks by the central bank.
Lomuro said there is a deficiency in money management, especially in hard currency in South Sudan whether in forex bureaus and banks or aid organizations.
He explained that the only way out of the economic crisis is to stop the ongoing war and bring peace in order to start improving production in all areas of development.