The Chamber of Commerce says it is working with the Ministry of Finance, of Trade, and the Central Bank to import essential basic items on credit.

The Secretary for Finance and Administration, William Akuoch, says the plan was agreed upon in a previous meeting about how to address food shortage in the country.

Mr. Akuoch j says businessmen and companies will use Letters of Guarantee in order to bring essential goods such as food, medicine and fuel.

He explained that that South Sudanese companies will buy goods from foreign businessmen and pay later.
He told Eye Radio that some companies will be importing goods on credit once agreements have been signed with some countries.

Mr. Akouch says the LGs will be used instead of LCs (Letters of Credit), which were introduced previously to address the scarcity of hard currency.

“First of all, I want to tell you that the work in private sector or the trade is not in cash money like we use to say LC (Letter Credit). That is not the only way the world is working with it. There is no country in the world working with cash money. All the countries are using what is called Letter of Guarantee. In fact, the letter of guarantee is between a country and another country. For example; there is an invitation to Chamber of Commerce from Kuwait. Kuwait invites us to travel there. The delegations that will go are the specialized economic ministries and central bank and will have visits and will have linking business relation with these countries,” Mr. Akuoch explained

Mr. Akuoch says 50 companies have been identified to bring goods using the Letter of Guarantee. But it is not clear when the Memoranda of Understanding with the selected countries will be signed.