South Sudanese pound. Photo: File
Nairobi/Juba, December 21, 2018 (SSNA) — The Bank of South Sudan and a Kenya-based Lukiza Ltd have signed a deal which will allow the young nation to have its first mobile money transfer service, a senior central bank official who agreed to talk on condition of anonymity told the South Sudan News Agency (SSNA) on Friday.
The deal, according to the official, will generate hundreds of millions of dollars for Lukiza.
“We have been working on this deal for months, so finally recently signed an agreement with Lukiza Ltd. This deal will make them [Lukiza] the first foreign financial institution to offer mobile money service to our country,” the official explained in an exclusive interview with the SSNA on Friday.
“What I can tell you is that Lukiza Ltd will make hundreds of millions of dollars from this agreement,” he asserted.
The bank official also said South Sudan’s government will also make “a lot of money” from the deal.
“We, as a state-run bank will also make a lot of money, no question about that,” he added.
The official disclosed to the South Sudan News Agency that the new mobile money transfer service will be called “Nilepay” and that the service will make easy for South Sudanese to receive and transfer money electronically.
The official declined to explain why the government signed such a lucrative deal with a Kenyan financial institution with no known successful record in the financial industry.
However, a source with full knowledge of the agreement told the SSNA that the agreement was orchestrated by two influential government officials, making it impossible for the central bank governing body to refuse.
The office of the central bank Governor Dier Tong Ngor refused to comment when contacted by the South Sudan News Agency.
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