Central bank sells $3 million to 22 registered commercial banks to stabilize economy

JUBA – The Central bank of South Sudan has sold $3 million to 22 eligible Commercial banks operating in the country in a bid to stabilize the economy, the institution’s chief said this afternoon.

Speaking to reporters in Juba during a press conference held on Tuesday, Dier Tong Ngor, Governor of the Central Bank, said the auctioning will help traders to acquire foreign currency needed to purchase essential food commodities.

“Today we started the auction for banks, we have just auctioned 3 million dollars to commercial banks this morning, 22 banks participated in this auction, out of these 22,20 banks manage will access forex resources at various  rate based on the auction or the bid that they have given in,”  Tong told reporters in Juba.

Tong said the resources will help business people to import essential commodities to the country.

“We will continue to conduct this affix auction for some time until we feel that the market is supplied with sufficient resources and the key players are able to take their role in the market whereby the prices or exchange rate will be determined based on the forces of supply and demand in the market,”  Ngor said.

Ngor explained that the bank will continue to auction 5 million dollars to every week bureaus and commercial banks  to help stabilize the economy.

“In total banks of south Sudan will be auctioning 5 million dollars every week and these resources will provide our traders and clients of commercial banks with the necessary foreign exchange that they needed,” he said.

“We will sustain it, we are also making sure that we build our own reserves from oil revenue, the exchange rate is not fixed and as we are injecting more resources, the tendencies or likelihood of exchange rate coming down is there,” he added.

Since December 2020, the central bank has been auctioning dollars to the forex bureau, an amount of 2 million every week.

The monetary policy said it supplies an amount of 5 million dollars every week, 2 million to forex bureaus and 3 million to commercial banks.