Rich, Poor and Debts: Failures of South Sudan Economy within the region
4 min readBy Esir Bol
October 9, 2015 (SSB) — First, I would like to start this article by quoting one of the greatest thinkers of our time. “If you get knowledge, you can’t keep your knowledge away from people seeking help….. These are our people.” By John Garang
According to the International monetary fund (IMF) East- Africa is the world second fastest growing region in term of development and borrowing, Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya and Mozambique are among the fastest growing countries in Africa. For instance, the large gas and oil were discovered in three countries and it was predicted to increased annual growth rate to about 10-15% per annum over next decade. Also, around 2013 the economies in Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda have doubles in 2014. In addition, government cash in those countries had been tight due to stricter fiscal and monetary policies after recent conflict in South Sudan.
In particularly Uganda monetary system has been tight, Uganda is a direct benefiter in South Sudan. Kampala has been viewed by many as friend of Juba. In contrary Kampala has been dragging her feet in regarded to trade projects. These trade projects if they were to be successfully both countries could benefits without doubts. In fact Kampala will be the biggest benefiter in terms of export to south Sudan. All the exports that are made by Kampala are made without paying tariff, in the same case Kampala want to charges Juba for their export expense. How sad! Moreover, Juba has been aiding Kampala military operation since January 2014 with their army expenses, this means Uganda soldiers were paid good wages while SPLA forces suffered.
On the other hand, we have Kenya which is trying to monopolize South Sudan banks and encouraging corruption by offering security to politicians in South Sudan to buy house in some wealthiest area in Nairobi. However, this notion is not new Ethiopia has been practicing these nonsensical trick on our weak leaders costing capital flight in South Sudanese economy, the so-call leaders abandoned our mother land indirectly before 13 December 2013 civil war started.
Moreover, South Sudan is getting ugly and weaker everyday while other countries are building and growing. The constructions industries in Kenya are growing faster and GDP is expected to increase by 20%, for example, Kenyan government signed a deal with Aliko Daqngote the African richest man to build and increases the supply of cement in 2013. This deal is expected to create jobs and Kenyan GDP is forecasted to increases by 8% into 2016. Also, Ethiopia has taken the same intuitive but they are using local citizens to build their own roads.
Furthermore, the population of those countries are growing strongly and the middle class jobs are expanding with huge infrastructure investments in Kenya. Historically speaking Uganda has put down their plans for 2025, they wanted to build some of the most advance roads Africa has never seen, railways, hospitals, and universities and so on. If those people can build their countries with limited resources why can we do the same with our enormous resources?
In term of minerals and natural resources those countries are not near south Sudan. South Sudan is one of the richest oil producing country in Africa, means South Sudan have huge advantages within her region. So the current failure of south Sudan is lack of institution, the institution that belongs to the people. When one compares South Sudan with other nations state it no difficult to see what we are lacking.
For example, these countries have had set institution that collect taxes and the tax revenue are put into the infrastructural industries for improvement of the country as whole. Moreover, tax revenue is not controlled by non-other than government taxation institution making it more flexible to invest in the following programs; bridges, better roads and more reliable electricity.
For Kenya and Tanzania, each has seen exports increasing by 20% and above per year. Also, Uganda has seen a major new hydropower project sharply increasing the power generating capacity during the last year. This comes before the increases in oil and gas export revenue expected to start in the next 3 to 5 years.
It is evidence that people of south Sudan want to see development in their country. South Sudanese demand were not supply, in contrary, their demand were disregarded by the so- call leaders and were punished by greedy menace. As for now that we have 28 abstract states we should not sit and do nothing, we made the same mistake when we separate for Sudan. I just want remind you that time of sitting around have come to an end. These coming years shall be times for progress.
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