South Sudan's English Daily Newspaper
"We Dare where others fear"

By Awan Achiek
A simple, modest and tick-up hygiene with an aroma that tickles the stomach of a hungry person is a constant welcome at the 30 seater restaurant of Mayen Malual Mayen in Hai Thoura in the heart of Juba City.
Mayen who graduated with a degree in Natural Resources from the University of Juba in 2022 opened the restaurant after failing to secure a job in his profession.
“In fact, some of the organizations do call me for interviews, I do succeed and they promise to call me back but they don’t call and this is what prompted me to come and open my own business,” Mayen told The Dawn in an interview at his restaurant.
Tucked away at a corner, a group of four guys were digging into plates of beans, with two attendants in wait to be of service. A plate cost 6000 SSP. “I do it low cost and therefore get many customers into my restaurant here,” Mayen said.
Mayen set up his restaurant in January with 80,000 SSP and into a year now boast of three times that amount, outside the daily costs he gives away for his employees and other taxes, precisely holding back 200,000 SSP every day in profit.
“I had seven years at the University of Juba and then after I was done, I moved out of the hostel and then I planned how to make sure that I put a business in the same place,” he said.
In South Sudan, unemployment is one of the biggest challenges facing the people, including people new professionals graduating from the various institutions.
The economic situation remains dire in the country and yet a transitional government of national unity instituted in 2018 to end a conflict that raged for six years and destroyed the livelihoods of the majority of the communities.
Many out there continue to idle around without a way to revamp their livelihoods but a few like Mayen have dug low and shown there is a way out of the dire situation.
Creativity for businesses like that of Mayen is a recipe that tantalizes the growth of the economy in a nation.
Taking a leaf from China, it is impossible to understate the importance of the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in the nation’s economy. According to a briefing, MSMEs contribute 50 percent of taxes, 60 percent of GDP, 70 percent of technological innovation, 80 percent of employment in urban and rural areas, and make up 90 percent of all companies in the country.
Those are people who do a similar work to what Mayen does. Mayen cooks “Ful Masiri,” a name given to a special plate of beans and bread. He started very modestly.
“I went to the market and what I could buy was one kilo of food for a day. That was when I was starting,” Mayen said.
“It graduated up to the extent, sometimes it would go to one and a half kilos, and when the business increased, we moved to two, and now we are doing three kilos a day and climbing,” he said.
“And I wasn’t having chairs. The chairs that you can see from here are the ones I buy after I get a little profit that I saved.”

Mayen can afford to pay the school fees of 6 siblings in school in neighboring Kenya, with two brothers among them in University.
“In fact, I sent them to Kenya, and it is this small business that I am supporting them. They are now in school, and as you can see, life is so good,” he said.
With him in the restaurant, are two people who also earn daily from the restaurant, taking home daily 2500 SSP in addition to 150,000 SSP monthly salary.
“Two of them plus me, we are three now. And if they are helping their families too, as I am also helping my family, then this is what we need in this country,” he said.
“So we need to be proactive. All the graduates need to also do the same thing.”