By Isaac Chol Aguer
In a country where the value of money shrinks by the day and the economy limps on cash transactions, it no longer makes sense to depend on physical money.
People in South Sudan today carry sacks of banknotes just to buy a quarter kilogram of sugar. A bottle of water that once cost SSP 1 now demands a fat bundle of crumpled notes.
Worse still, how often do traders refuse your SSP 1,000 because it’s too torn or it’s in small notes? Paying a boda boda rider SSP 5,000 means either carrying a bulk of cash or bargaining over a pile of notes. This daily humiliation must end — and digital payment integration is no longer a nice idea; it’s a survival strategy.
Why Digital Payments Matter Now
South Sudan cannot build a modern economy on cash alone. Paper money slows business, exposes traders and families to theft, fuels corruption, and keeps millions outside the formal economy.
Integrating digital payment systems between telecom operators and banks isn’t just a technical exercise — it’s a lifeline for a fragile economy. It streamlines transactions, improves security, reduces theft, fights bribery, and creates thousands of new income opportunities.
The reality is simple: if we don’t build a digital payment economy now, the day will come when it takes a wheelbarrow of SSP to buy lunch.
A localized strategy that fits South Sudan
We don’t need to copy foreign models word-for-word. We need a solution built for our market realities, our infrastructure, and our people’s habits.
Here’s what will work:
- Create a Unified Digital Payment Platform (UDPP) — a government-backed but privately-managed system where all telecom operators plug into a shared payment gateway connected to licensed banks and microfinance institutions. This ensures seamless transfers between any network and bank, while maintaining oversight.
- Encourage and Raise Awareness on the Use of USSD Short Codes for Non-Smartphone Users — Digital payments cannot remain a privilege for smartphone owners in towns. USSD short codes should be aggressively promoted to enable users on simple phones to pay school fees, send money, settle bills, and conduct business without requiring internet access.
- Appoint Digital Payment Agents in Every Market and Payam — trusted locals who act as cash-in, cash-out points, help register users, and offer basic guidance. These agents will ease the shift from cash to digital, especially in rural areas where formal banks are absent.
- Leverage Radio Programs and Drama Shows — if our airwaves can be packed daily with meaningless music and empty content that adds no value to listeners, they can equally be used to educate and normalise digital payments. Relatable stories, short comedy dramas, and real-life testimonies on how digital money improves lives will spread faster than any official memo.
What Needs to Be Done
- The National Communication Authority (NCA) must stop acting like a regulatory overlord and start behaving like a national development partner. They must facilitate — not frustrate — digital integration.
- Telecom operators must shelve their petty competition and prioritize interoperability. A divided market weakens the entire financial system.
- Banks need to wake up from their air-conditioned boardrooms and see the millions they’re losing by ignoring the informal economy. The bulk of real money exchanges happen in the streets and markets, not in office towers. Right now, our banks have reduced themselves to dollar dealers, sitting idle waiting for the Bank of South Sudan to auction USD. This black market culture disguised as banking must stop. It’s time they act like real banks — lending, supporting businesses, and facilitating digital financial services that actually help the country.
- And we, the people, must stop fearing new systems and start demanding them. If you can carry a sack of SSP to buy lunch, you can learn to send money through your phone.
This isn’t about convenience anymore. It’s about fighting corruption, creating jobs, improving financial security, reducing crime, and finally dragging South Sudan into the 21st century.
If Zimbabwe and Sierra Leone, both countries battered by war and inflation, could implement mobile money systems and pull millions into the formal economy, we have no excuse.
The longer we hesitate, the deeper we sink.
You’ll see it. The day you stop carrying cash bundles just to pay for water or lunch, you’ll remember this call.