South Sudan settles $1.7 million debt owed to German passport printing firm

South Sudan’s government has cleared the outstanding debt amounting to 1.7 million U.S dollars owed to the Germany-based Muhlbauer Company, paving way for printing of more passports and national identity cards for South Sudanese citizens.

Philip Kuch, the Assistant Director of Finance in the Directorate of Civil Registry, Nationality, Passport and Immigration said on Tuesday that the ministry of finance and planning settled the debt.

“We received 10,000 passport booklets last week, and we have now received 20,000 passport booklets. We still have 182,000 booklets to be delivered and that will take us up to the middle of next year,” Kuch told journalists during press conference held in Juba.

South Sudanese citizens often criticized the department of Civil Registry, Nationality, Passport and Immigration over delayed issuance of passports and nationality certificates. 

David Oromo, the Deputy Director of ICT at the Directorate of Civil Registry, Nationality, Passport and Immigration, thanked the ministry of finance and the interior ministry for speeding up the payment of the outstanding debt.

“I would like to thank the ministry of finance and the ministry of interior for tirelessly working out to make sure arrears that were not paid since 2020 are cleared. The delays in settling the debt disrupted the delivery of passport booklets,” Oromo said.