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

The Ministry of Finance and Planning and the Bank of South Sudan are encouraging all civil servants to open bank accounts to allow the government to streamline salary payments across the institutions.

The institutions made the call at a meeting between the First Undersecretary of Finance, Arop Nuei Arop, undersecretaries, and accounting officers from various government institutions in Juba on Tuesday.

The meeting discussed the directive of the Vice President for the Economic Cluster regarding reforms in the payment of salaries, including the need for all civil servants to receive their salaries through the banking system.

During the meeting, accounting officers raised concerns over several challenges affecting salary payments.

These include a lack of electronic payment infrastructure in some ministries and institutions, other difficulties faced by unclassified staff who do not have bank accounts, a shortage of liquidity at commercial banks, making it hard for civil servants to withdraw their salaries.

Meanwhile, others raised the issue of remote areas where there are no banking services, with civil servants struggling to access financial institutions.

The officials called on the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank to address these issues urgently to ensure timely and inclusive salary payments for all government workers.

Speaking after a high-level meeting, Arop Nuei Arop, the First Undersecretary of the Ministry of Finance, said the government is implementing directives from the Vice President of the Economic Cluster aimed at improving payment systems and inter-agency coordination.

“We have discussed two issues; number one was the issue of salary payments, when we discussed with the accounting officers to encourage all the civil servants to open accounts in the various banks,” adding that “this is the communication from the vice president for the economic cluster.”

For his part, Dr. Addis Ababa Othow, the First Deputy Governor of the Bank of South Sudan, reiterated the Central Bank’s commitment to ensuring salaries are paid on time.

Othow said the meeting agreed to engage commercial banks and mobile money service providers such as M-Gurush and MTN Momo to reduce transaction charges for civil servants.

“We had a very good meeting regarding reforms on the payment of salary to ensure that all the civil servants have an account with the commercial banks, all through other telecoms such as MoMo, M-Gurush of Digicash.

“We had agreed that we would communicate with the commercial bank and in coordination with other telecoms to ensure that the charges are taken care of, so that the unclassified staff will not be affected, but also the other civil servants.

“We urge all the undersecretaries, the accounting officers, the DGs to ensure that we work together as a team because our mission is one, paying the salaries on time.”

Both institutions pledged continued collaboration to ensure efficient salary distribution, greater financial inclusion, and improved public service delivery.

The meeting is part of ongoing efforts to implement financial reforms aimed at improving public service delivery and accountability.