![South Sudan’s central bank governor, Addis Ababa Othow, speaks during the launch of the Inter-Bank Payment and Settlement System in Juba on Friday, 10th October 2025 [Photo by Sudans Post]](https://i0.wp.com/www.sudanspost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/IMG_9874-scaled-1.jpg?ssl=1)
The system, unveiled by the Bank of South Sudan, is designed to streamline cash and electronic transactions between banks, addressing long-standing inefficiencies in the country’s fragmented financial system and reducing reliance on physical cash.
SSIPS is an automated platform developed by the central bank that integrates Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) and an Automated Clearing House (ACH), two core components widely recognised as building blocks of national payment infrastructure.
RTGS is intended for urgent, high-value transactions, while ACH supports bulk, low-value payments such as salaries, utility bills, and routine institutional transfers, creating a unified backbone for digital payments across the banking sector.
Speaking at the launch in Juba, Dr Addis Ababa Othow, Governor of the Bank of South Sudan, described the platform as a critical enabler of a modern, digitised economy.
“It will enable real-time payment and instant funds between the individual and businesses 24 hours a day and seven days a week. What it means is that you can make the payment instantly within the financial system and across the banks,” Othow said.
Othow said the system is designed to improve interoperability, allowing banks, mobile money platforms, and fintech services to transact seamlessly within a shared national payments infrastructure — a key principle of digital public goods.
“We also know, and this has been part of our reform agenda, that it will promote financial inclusion. For so long, many of our people, especially the unbanked populations, have been left outside the formal system, and this will now expand access to financial services to the unbanked.”
He added that SSIPS will enhance efficiency and transparency, enabling better traceability of transactions and reducing systemic risks associated with informal cash-based transfers.
“What it means is that it will lower the cost of doing business in South Sudan. As of now, because of a lack of so much infrastructure, many of our investors are discouraged from coming and doing business in South Sudan, and with this system, we lower the cost of doing business, but what we call the e-government services,” he said.
The system is also expected to support the digitisation of government payments and public services, aligning with broader efforts to develop e-government platforms and strengthen public financial management.
Dr Martin Elia Lomuro, Minister of Cabinet Affairs, said the platform would improve oversight and regulation of the banking sector by enabling real-time monitoring of cash flows within the formal system.
“This system, hopefully, will control the banks and make sure that even the missions, some of the UN agencies, and the NGOs that look at accounts in our banks should be forced to have banks in our accounts,” Lomuro said.
“You can’t claim money outside to come and help South Sudan, and you keep the money in Kenya, or Uganda, or somewhere else,” he added.
Lomuro said the system would also support state oversight of capital movement and financial leakages, calling for stronger involvement of security and economic oversight institutions.
“There should be an important institution in this launch. The economic security sector has a lot to do, and they should not play ignorant. They know money is being carried out of our country,” he said.
Analysts say the success of SSIPS will depend on effective integration with mobile money providers, sustained regulatory reforms, and public trust, as South Sudan seeks to transition from a cash-heavy economy toward a more inclusive and accountable digital financial ecosystem.
