The Republic’s most influential institution is also its most run down. For days, the Central Bank has spent hours, night and day, trying to move a mountain: distributing the first national currency notes under pitiful work environment.
The currency, Governor Elijah Malok says, had be changed fast – otherwise, it could create a loophole for Sudan to manipulate the economy. One can only wonder at how the staff pulled off this feat under pitiful conditions. The Central Bank’s current location does not give the nation the face it deserves. The area is congested. Motorists drive by all the time. Dust blows every minute. Consequently, the central bankers have no calm time to sit back and reflect upon the economic challenges that the Republic will one day face. From the perspective of organizational psychology, a comfortable central banking facility would mean that staff could dream of work without worrying about guests loitering in and out – a dream the current location makes impossible.
Therefore, move that bank. If the Central Bank is to be secure, with controlled access, the answer is to construct one that is far out of town, or to, at a very high price, buy off the multitude of housing complexes in Juba market, stretching from the main market to the Central Pub. Estimates are that for just over 20 million US Dollars one could build a sophisticated banking complex in a developing country with enough room for a secure safe, parking, and amenities for staff.
Granted, the Bank’s location at the start of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement reflected the impossibility of working out of the business center of town: Roads and public transport – cars, bikes, etc – didn’t exist, houses for rent didn’t exist. That, partly, justified the continued stay of the bank premises in the center of the market. Secondly, with insecurity in Juba’s surroundings at the time, it was of no surprise that the bank said in its current, chaotic location, which, interestingly, was its most secure.
But those challenges now belong to the past. This is a new Republic. And the Bank of Southern Sudan has become the Central Bank of South Sudan. The chaotic location is more insecure than the suburbs, such as Bilpam, Jebel, Gudele and Gumbo. It is time to give the smart people who sit day and night long thinking for this Republic’s economy, the best environment to work from. It is time to build that new Central Bank building.
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