Matia Samuel
Africa-Press – South-Sudan. The minister of finance, Dier Tong Ngor said capacity and financing challenges are among the key constraints preventing South Sudan from unlocking its potential.
Ngor made the remarks yesterday in Juba during the launch of the Financing Facility for Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs) in Juba.
According to him, sustainable capacity development remains the most challenging area, preventing the country from moving forward.
“As a country, we need to learn lessons from this experience and see how we can improve.”We have underestimated the complicity of the capacity development challenges.”
He said the key reason for the weak results of capacity development in South Sudan is that it has often been viewed as a technical process
Ngor stated that in most cases, the donors impose their own solutions, including parallel structures, as a way of implementing projects in South Sudan.
He said this requires a clear framework that views capacity development as a long-term process to emphasize local ownership, transparency, and clear accountability.
“Our banks have the lowest records of financing the private sector in the region,” he said, adding, there is a dearth of knowledge on the process of applying for the loans.
Ngor suggested that financial literacy should be included as part of any general business training, as most businesses in the country are informal microenterprises.
Also, he said microfinance institutions need to be encouraged to deal with macro enterprises.
“You can go and borrow from one bank, default, and then because the information is not available, you will run to another bank; this one needs to be addressed by us establishing a credited reference bureau so that information can be shared by the banking sector,” Ngor stated.
However, he admitted the lack of long-term financing to provide the banks with resources so that they can own properties on long-term basis.
Source: The City Review South Sudan
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