Juba – Nelson Lwak

Juba, the capital of south Sudan, is experiencing a rapid increase in the prices of food commodities and non-food items imported from Uganda and Kenya.

The roads linking Juba to the neighboring countries have practically run into disuse due to heavy rains.

Speaking to Miraya Fm, the director of foreign trade in the ministry of commerce and supply in the Government of South Sudan, Moses Lomoro, attributed the increase in the prices of food items, among other commodities, in the markets to the poor roads linking South Sudan to Uganda and Kenya.

Mr. Lomoro said the condition of the roads is deteriorating because of heavy rains falling on the region on daily bases.

Liberalized Economy

He also said: “We cannot advise the traders to reduce their cost to what we would like them to do because we have not got an alternative to supply.

”He explained that this could be done “in a kind of a command economy,” where prices are brought down by “releasing the supply into the market.

”Lomoro said that the Government of South Sudan is “encouraging and practicing a liberalized kind of economy.”

“However,” he added, “we advise the traders not to increase the prices unnecessarily, although we understand that the cost of transportation of these goods is high.

” The Speaker of South Sudan Legislative Assembly (SSLA), James Wani Igga, expressed similar concerns and urged the government to step in quickly to remedy the situation.

He warned that if the situation is allowed to continue, the goods in the market may disappear and inflation would set in.Mr. Wani Igga advised the government to allocate more funding to the transport and road sector in the next fiscal budget adding that other priorities are meaningless without passable roads.