President Kiir sacks central bank chief amid currency volatility
By Denis Ejulu
South Sudanese president Salva Kiir Mayardit has sacked the governor of the central bank, Johnny Ohisa Damian after having served less than six months since his appointment in December 2024
Kiir replaced Ohisa with the first deputy governor of the central bank, Addis Ababa Othow in a presidential decree aired late Monday on state broadcaster (SSBC) in Juba, the capital of South Sudan.
In another decree, Kiir reappointed Samuel Yanga Mikaya as first deputy governor of the central bank. Mikaya was relieved alongside James Alic Garang, former governor of the central bank in December 2024.
No reasons were given for the changes in the top leadership of the apex bank, but analysts point to the volatility of the currency exchange rate which has seen the local South Sudan Pound (SSP) increasingly depreciate against the United States dollar.
The SSP is currently exchanging with the dollar 580,000 SSP in the black market, meanwhile it is exchanging at 4452,1612 SSP at the official exchange rate.
The transitional unity government currently continues to struggle to pay salaries of civil servants and organized forces, which have gone for several months without pay due to disruptions in oil production caused by outbreak of conflict in neighboring Sudan.
South Sudan depends on oil exports to finance 95 percent of it’s annual fiscal expenditure, thus making it’s economy vulnerable to external global shocks.
