Denominations of One and Five South Sudanese Pounds

The governor of the Bank of South Sudan has directed commercial banks to use small notes of pound in the country.

Dr James Alic Garang said that commercial banks should also reduce transacting in big notes.

He said the financial regulatory body has made a decision recently to release lower denominations to be circulating in the market.

Dr Alic also cautioned traders and banks against rejecting small banknotes, saying all types of South Sudan pounds are legal tender in the country.

“For the last few weeks, the bank has made a decision that all notes must be used, and more also, smaller notes to discourage people from carrying huge [big] notes, and as a policy, we will continue to encourage the use of small notes,” Dr Alic told bank managers.

“To all the commercial banks, if you have big notes and smaller notes, we encourage you to resort to smaller notes,” he said.

The South Sudanese Pound was introduced on 18 July 2011, replacing the Sudanese Pound.

It is subdivided into 100 piasters; the National Legislative Assembly approved it before the independence in July 2011.

There are eight different denominations (1, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 500, 1,000 pounds).

In 2016, the Bank of South Sudan issued a 20 South Sudanese pound banknote to replace the 25 pound banknote.

It later introduced into the market coins in the form of 10 piasters, 20 piasters & 50 piasters, 1 pound, 2 pounds.

However, the coins are rarely used for transactions nationwide.

With the crunch in the economy, the 1 pound value can no longer purchase any commodity in the market.