Public Outrage Over Sky-Rocketing Market Prices In Jonglei State

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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This they attribute to the poor road accessibility, the scarcity of the US dollars, and failure of the government to control the market price which later translates to high prices. 

However, the government in the state says that they are putting in more efforts in order to overcome the soaring prices.

Jonglei state was one of the worst-hit areas affected by the mid-December 2013 outbreak of conflict, which started in the capital, Juba, after disputes erupted among the presidential guards.

Jonglei’s state Minister of Local Government, Wal Athiu Madol, says the South Korean Contingency of theUnited Nations mission in South Sudan-UNMISS has already helped the state government in upgrading the Juba– Bor road.

Madol says that transportation from Juba has now been made easy for traders to transport their commodities to Jonglei easily.

“I believe that all goods coming are currently coming from Juba, and now Bor market is full of all kinds ofcommodities from Juba. We hope that the prices will come down because the main problem was transportation.”

However, the public in Jonglei seem to think otherwise. They say that transportation has been made easy but the issue of concern remains the free floating exchange rate of the US dollars against the Sudanese pounds.  They claim that the rate of the dollar is high due to its scarcity which has led traders to hike the prices of their commodities.

Mohammed Adam is a trader in Jonglei State and he complains about the rate at which the dollar now exchanges.

“The problem is with the dollars. 100 dollar now goes between 590 to 600 and 620, south Sudanese pounds and that’s why a trader increases the prices, and this increase is because of the dollar, nothing to do with the trader.”

Minister of Local Government, Wal insists that if traders have access to the dollar and transportation from town to town then the market prices will significantly reduce.

A resident of Bor town, Abraham Duot Akoi is blaming the government in the state, for failing to control the market price. He says the government should adopt a price control system so as to define the market price of commodities instead of the equilibrium price set through the interaction between supply and demand. 

“We demand our government to control the prices. To at least reduce it, because when things come from Juba, the shopkeepers just set the price as they like, they do it randomly without the control of the government. That’s what we are witnessing.” 

 Another resident of Bor town, Anger Rebecca Machar, who was at the market shopping during the just pastfestive season, says that the prices have doubled as compared to last year.
 “These prices makes people walk away,” she said. 

“200 or 300 South Sudanese pounds I tell you, this money cannot do a thing for a family. 200 cannot even take one month. So this makes people to migrate from this, Jonglei state, to another state which has low prices like Yei and Nimule.”

 Meanwhile a shirt that used to cost 50 south Sudanese pounds is now going at 80 south Sudanese pounds and a pair of trousers that was 50 SSP now stands at 100 SSP.

In late December 2014, traders in Jonglei state protested over the issue of letters of credit.

Earlier in 2014, traders called on President Salva Kiir to instruct the Central Bank to allot businesses from Bor, hard currency to enable them to import from neighboring countries.

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