By Mamer Abraham
The government of South Sudan has paid $7,000,000 to the East African Community as part of its membership fees and arrears.
A statement issued by the Ministry of East African Community Affairs noted that the payment was directed towards the settlement of arrears and the commitment fees for the financial year 2023-2024.
“The government of South Sudan, through the Ministry of Finance and Planning and the Ministry of East African Community Affairs, has a pleasure in informing the interested parties that we have successfully remitted 7,000,000 (only seven million United States dollars) to the East African Community, which is spread across the arrears and the current financial year 2023-2024, respectively,” the statement partly read.
Dr. Anne Itto, the chairperson of the East Africa Legislative Assembly (EALA) South Sudan Chapter, welcomed the effort from the government, clarifying that $3 million was payment for arrears while $4 million was made towards current fees.
“I think that information you can get from the Ministry of East African Affairs. I think the undersecretary made a statement to the effect that South Sudan paid $7 billion to the East African Community. Three million are towards covering part of the arrears and four million for the current fees,” Dr. Anne told this outlet in a telephone interview.
She stated that the government still had some outstanding payments to make later, but paying $7 million at once, she said, was a gesture that would contribute to facilitating the activities of the regional bloc.
“We are very happy that the government has been able to do that. It is the country’s contribution; there is still some money that South Sudan owes to the East African Community,” she noted.
“But paying $7 million for us is a very good move because it can contribute directly to the money that is being used for managing the activities of the East African Community. I think in the near future, South Sudan will pay more,” she said.
Last year, the South Sudan Chapter of the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) urged the government of South Sudan to pay four-year membership fees to the East African Community.
Dr. Itto said the country was obligated to pay $8.4 million each year as a contribution to the activities of the EAC.
“Four more years have not been covered, excluding the fiscal year 2022-2023; we owe about 39 million United States dollars to the East African Community,” she continued.
“At some point, we have not been paying our membership, and that denies us a lot of benefits. Our participation in the processes of integration has been weak because either we have no money or people do not appreciate it enough,” Dr. Itto stressed.
She said the delayed payment of South Sudan membership fees had created a budget gap in the running of the activities of the EAC.