{"id":48380,"date":"2026-10-01T14:57:22","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T12:57:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/?p=48380"},"modified":"2026-10-01T15:02:30","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T13:02:30","slug":"op_ed-why-electronic-payment-is-a-national-economic-priority-for-south-sudan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/01\/op_ed-why-electronic-payment-is-a-national-economic-priority-for-south-sudan\/","title":{"rendered":"Op_Ed: Why electronic payment is a national economic priority for South Sudan"},"content":{"rendered":"

Writer: Abraham Makuei Ayool <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Though South Sudan has made strides towards digitalisation, with electronic payment platforms such as MTN MoMo and mGURUSH providing ordinary citizens and businesspeople with an avenue to send and receive money, pay and be paid, and conduct various other transactions, the general lack of cash and liquidity in the country continues to undermine payments.<\/p>\n

The problem of cash and liquidity needs to be urgently addressed by the government and not left to the mobile-money sector. By facilitating electronic payments, the country can reduce its dependence on cash, increase transparency, and improve access to financial services, among other benefits.<\/p>\n

At the same time, electronic transactions can only serve their purpose if citizens can freely and easily transfer, withdraw, spend, and receive digital money. Therefore, the Ministry of Finance and Planning, the Bank of South Sudan, and the Economic Cluster should make electronic payments a national priority.<\/p>\n

They should prioritise liquidity while building enabling environments for people to undertake transactions using digital money. The government should start by digitising all eligible payments, including salaries and payments to suppliers, and encourage businesses to adopt electronic payments.<\/p>\n

The central bank should ensure that banks and mobile money platforms have the necessary interoperability, liquidity, and accountability. The Bank of South Sudan and the government should work with telecommunication companies to improve service delivery and with banks and mobile-money entities to promote electronic payments and extend services beyond the capital.<\/p>\n

The authorities should also launch a sensitisation and digital literacy campaign to educate the public on how to use various electronic platforms, including mobile money, and what to do in case of failed transactions, complaints, and fraud.<\/p>\n

Besides, the government needs to ensure that businesses embrace electronic payments so that customers can pay digitally and avoid converting digital money to cash, especially since most accept digital money as payment.<\/p>\n

South Sudan needs to think of the current cash challenges as an opportunity rather than a limitation to develop a robust electronic payment system.<\/p>\n

The government should strive to make money circulate in a digital form from one person, entity, or government to another seamlessly and securely. Therefore, the reminder to the government is that it cannot build a sustainable economy on cash.<\/p>\n

Authorities must act decisively to create an environment conducive to electronic transactions and address the liquidity needs of the citizens. South Sudan should think of electronic payments as infrastructure and contribute to South Sudan\u2019s overall economic development.<\/p>\n

About the Author:<\/em><\/p>\n

He holds a Master of Arts in Economic Development and Policy Analysis<\/em><\/p>\n

Disclaimer:<\/strong> Any opinion published on our platforms does not represent the company’s view or position.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Writer: Abraham Makuei Ayool Though South Sudan has made strides towards digitalisation, with electronic payment platforms such as MTN MoMo and mGURUSH providing ordinary citizens and businesspeople with an avenue to send and receive money, pay and be paid, and conduct various other transactions, the general lack of cash and[Read More…]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":48381,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,89,90,84,85,80,87,4,86],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-columnists","category-commentary","category-finance","category-markets","category-national","category-oped","category-politics","category-technology-business"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Abraham-Makuei-Ayool-e1790859410628.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48380"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48380\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48384,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48380\/revisions\/48384"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}