The country’s leadership should devise other ways to generate revenue, than depending on oil, an analyst has said.

Over the weekend, President Salva Kiir issued a decree creating five more states. This increased the number of states to 33.

Abraham Awolich, a policy analyst with the Sudd Institute, says the creation of the new states is a step towards the implementation of the peace agreement and resolving some of the issues of conflict.

However, Mr. Awolich says the states need to be self-reliant.

“So what the government will need to do is to empower these states and enable them to be able to generate more resources,” he argues.

“That means the government has to embark on massive economic development to create jobs for citizens in all these states.”

The newly created states include Central Upper Nile, Northern Upper Nile, Maiwut, Akobo and Tombura.

Mr Abraham suggests that new jobs should be created in the new states, and their taxes should be used to their finance operations.