Bank of South Sudan headquarters in Jebel, Juba. (Photo: Eye Radio).

The Bank of South Sudan has pledged to inject funds into commercial banks as a short-term measure to ease the country’s liquidity crisis and improve access to cash.

This follows a high-level meeting in Juba between the Governor, Johny Ohisa Damian, and managing directors of commercial banks to address ongoing cash shortages affecting the public and businesses.

Governor Ohisa announced that the central bank will allocate cash to commercial banks to strengthen liquidity and enable them to meet rising demand, particularly for salary withdrawals.

According to Bank spokesperson Majok Nicodemus, the move is part of coordinated efforts to address the shortage. He said, “They agreed to coordinate to resolve the issue, and the Governor ordered allocations to ease the shortage and address salary payments.”

The Governor also conveyed a message from President Salva Kiir Mayardit, emphasizing the need to ensure uninterrupted access to cash.

The Chairperson of the South Sudan Bankers Association, Bruna Cirisio, welcomed the intervention and acknowledged the challenges facing the public.

She said, “We cannot rest when we see that the public is not getting cash, as our objective is to provide cash to the public and for the central bank to provide liquidity to commercial banks.”

Cirisio added that banks are actively working with the regulator to find solutions across different timelines.

“We really feel your pain, and we are thinking morning and night, brainstorming with our regulator to find a solution. We have considered long-term, short-term, and medium-term measures, and we hope that within this month something will be made available to ease the situation.”

Officials say the cooperation between the central bank and commercial banks will continue as they pursue both immediate relief and sustainable long-term solutions to the liquidity crisis.