John Ohisa Damian, Governor of the Central Bank. Courtesy.

The governor of the Bank of South Sudan has partly blamed the financial regulatory body’s inability to stabilize prices in the market on its lack of modernized and insufficient payment system.

Johnny Ohisa says most transactions are not being done through electronic systems because the bank has yet to develop it.

However, he did not explain how a payment system will help the bank stabilize the prices.

However, according to the International Monetary Fund, effective payment systems play a major role in ensuring the soundness of financial systems by limiting the possibility of systemic crises, which could undermine confidence in financial institutions and markets.

IMF also states that traditionally, the literature on accounting and central banking has viewed payments systems in government as a mechanical process, consequently, scant justice has been done to systems that bring the government closer to the taxpaying public

Central bank governor Johnny Ohisa said the financial institution is working on an efficient payment system and would be operational next year.

“One of the ways the Central Bank contributes to price stability is to have an efficient payment system, our payment system is not efficient people carry cash,” said Ohisa.

“Once we modernize, hopefully by next year we will be able to modernize our payment system whereby all the transactions will be done electronically,” he said.

“You cannot carry cash, you can do transactions online. We are encouraging mobile money companies to come.”

Governor Johnny went on to say they are working to ensure the Banking Act is amended to empower women entrepreneurs in the country.

“We are also amending our acts so that microfinance becomes a centre stage. We have a lot of women who are entrepreneurs, so by forming a corporate society which the central bank will regulate and ensure that there are laws that protect them is one of the main decisions that the central bank is taking,” he said.

Last month, lawmakers at the National Parliament recommended the use of an electronic payment system to eliminate ghost names in all government payrolls.

Ghost names refer to a corruption scheme of having non-existing persons drawing salaries on government payrolls.

The issue is said to have affected civil servants, and organized forces – resulting in unnecessary expenditures and hindering the efficient delivery of public services.