Cash strapped South Sudan government has secured $112.7million (Sh13.6billion) emergency funding from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The funding which is subject to approval by the IMF Executive Board will help the East African Community member state address among others, ongoing food insecurity.
“IMF staff and the South Sudanese authorities have reached a staff-level agreement for about US$112.7 million in emergency financing through the IMF’s new Food Shock Window of the Rapid Credit Facility combined with a Program Monitoring with Board Involvement,” IMF stated.
This emergency financing under the new Food Shock Window will help South Sudan address food insecurity, support social spending, and boost international reserves.
The Program Monitoring with Board Involvement will support economic policies aimed at maintaining macroeconomic stability and debt sustainability.
Ahead of the Executive Board consideration of the Food Shock Window request, the authorities will implement several reforms to strengthen governance and transparency.
The reforms include publishing budget execution reports; publishing the results of a stock take of South Sudan’s external debt; publishing the Auditor General’s report on the second RCF disbursement and starting to address its findings and recommendations; as well as strengthening the process for contracting external debt and issuing sovereign guarantees.
About 8.3 million people in the country or two-thirds of the population are facing severe food insecurity as a result of continued localised conflict, four consecutive years of severe flooding, and the rising price of staple commodities from Russia’s war in Ukraine.
