South Sudan: Economic Impact of coalition govt [Business Africa]

A nation battered by prolonged conflict since declaring independence from Sudan in 2011. South Sudan relies heavily on crude oil as it contributes 80 percent of its Gross domestic product. Its economy has slowed as unrest have dealt a big blow to production and exports. Neighboring east African nations did not do much to restore the sovereign state to its former glory.

That’s according to local think tanks. Over the weekend, a fresh coalition government was instituted with hopes of ending the blood bath. This is not new for South Sudan. But question is would this peace deal hold anything at all for a collapsed economy?

Dr. James Okuk is a senior researcher at the Centre for Policy and Strategic Studies in the South Sudanese capital, Juba. He tells Ignatius Annor that ‘‘Any disruption to the security sector will not be good news to whatever is expected to be done. Chapter two of the agreement has detailed the road map for that and they need to find a lot of finance or a lot of partners to do that and that is one of the challenges they have ahead. Once the security is settled, I think they need to focus on reforms because the time of war has brought in a lot of frivolities and a lot of corrupt practices and this need to be really controlled and managed this time round.’‘

They need to open up the borders so that South Sudanese can move freely within these borders.