VP Taban Deng Gai - Courtesy

Frequent removal of Finance Ministers and Bank Governors is not an immediate solution to the volatile economy of the country, the Vice President for Infrastructure Cluster has said.

Taban Deng Gai made this during the second day of the National Economic Conference in Juba on Tuesday, September 5.

Just in twelve years’ time, South Sudan’s Bank has already been served by seven Governors whereas the Finance Ministry has witnessed 10 Ministers.

The National Economic Conference commenced on Tuesday, September 5, with calls for fiscal discipline, investment in agriculture, and in the private sector among others to diversify the economy.

In his statement, Taban says, the sacking of Finance Ministers, Undersecretaries, and Central Bank Governors is not a solution to the provision of immediate solution to the volatile economy.

He says, the heads of the financial institutions have plans to achieve and argue that, their plans are realizable, only when given enough time to execute their policies.

Taban calls for enough time for the Finance Minister, Undersecretary, and Bank Governor to exercise their mandate of the economic reform agenda.

“One very important point which is in the area of policy making is the tenure of the Governor and his deputy. You know you cannot change the state of the economy in one night,” Taban said.

“I will recommend in this forum that, the Minister of Finance and his Undersecretary should be given ample time, instead of bringing them today and then removing them tomorrow. They cannot do what they want to do. Give them time so that they implement the policy,” he said.

“The same thing to the Governor, we should not bring the Governor today and then remove him tomorrow and we think that he can deliver. They are doing technical work and they need time so that they implement what they want to achieve”.

For his part, the Governor of the Central Bank, Johnny Ohisa says the government believe that constant governors of ministers can’t bring change in economic crisis.

However, he says the more the officials stay in the position the better to fix the economy.

“You know there is this degree of autonomy of operation whereby I think even the Vice President [Taban Deng] alluded to, that constant governors [BoSS] or ministers of finance is not helpful, for example, the example of Uganda, the governor stayed for 26 years and died there,” said Ohisa.

“It didn’t take him one [year], it took him more than 10 years to correct the economy of Uganda. You cannot expect me to correct the economy in one year, it is not easy and it is not possible,”  he said.

The conference brought participants from the national and state governments, three administrative areas as well as national lawmakers, representatives from the private sector, academia Think Tanks, and trade Union.