As of May 22, 2023, one U.S. dollar trades at 1,000 South Sudanese pound in the Forex market. | Photo: Courtesy.

The Bank of South Sudan announced Tuesday it will sell an undisclosed amount of foreign currency to commercial banks and Forex Bureaus on Thursday, in a bid to stabilize the exchange rate.

The Bank’s Foreign Exchange Supervisory Committee said the auction is scheduled for Thursday, July 20.

The committee’s chairperson, Peter Majok Chiengan appeals to all eligible banks and forex bureaus to collect application forms at the Central Bank offices.

Chiengnan urgeS the applying banks and forex bureaus to abide by the auction rules and procedures by submitting the quotation bids within a specified period.

He says the qualified banks and Forex Bureaus are free to bid for any of their choices.

“The qualified applicants are permitted to quote any bid amount of their choice at the time of bid submission.”

The country’s financial regulator has since been using the auction policy, which has been criticized by economists, in a bid to rescue weaking pounds that have sent commodity prices skyrocketing.

It believes that the auction of hard currency to both the forex bureaus and commercial banks is likely to prevent further depreciation of the South Sudanese pound against the U.S. dollar.

On Friday last week, the bank also announced an auction of 10 billion South Sudanese pounds in the form of a term deposit facility to interested commercial banks in the country.

Today, July 18, 2023, $100 sells at 100,889 SSP according to the official exchange rate published on the Central Bank’s official Facebook page.