South Sudan's English Daily Newspaper
"We Dare where others fear"
By Okech Francis
A conference including all the Central Banks in the East African Community started in Juba yesterday and is expected to culminate with a direction communique by Friday.
It is the 27th meeting of the Monetary Affairs Committee of the East African Community which ultimate goal is to achieve a single currency for the regional block.
Other achievements sought include harmonizing monetary and fiscal policies and harmony in the national payment systems as well as payment and settlement systems.
If the single currency is achieved, it will see the establishment of the East African Central Bank and also the East African Monetary Institute.
The East African Community (EAC) is a regional intergovernmental organization of seven partner States including Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, Somalia and Uganda with an annual rotational chairmanship.
The current chairman is President Salva Kiir Mayardit, and as such giving room for his country to hold the Monetary Affairs Committee meeting this year.
South Sudan is currently undergoing an economic and monetary reform plan initiated by the leadership of the bank governor, Dr. James Alic Garang.
Dr. Garang is a brand new recipient of two new awards, as a result of his efforts towards the reforms in the country as well as region.
He received a recognition from the house of representatives of South Carolina, who hailed him as a “distinguished economist” and one of the top 25 African Finance leaders of 2024.
Likewise, the African Leadership Organization also commended him citing his “outstanding achievements and contributions to the socio-economic development of South Sudan and Africa.”
At the Bank of South Sudan, Dr. Garang is spearheading reforms based on merits, transparency with full use of the 35 percent quota for women envisaged in the constitution.
Dr. Garang told The Dawn ahead of the meeting that it will focus on import cover- looking at gross reserves of a country and seeing its relativeness to how much imports a country can cover in a number of months.
He said the desire in the region is to have an import cover of 4.5 months.
Inflation is also an issue critically discussed with the meeting ensuring that inflation rate in the whole region is in the neighborhood of 8 percent and as well Gross Domestic Growth (GDP) in the neighborhood of 4 percent, according to Dr. Garang.
