Business declines in S. Sudan’s Mapel town as 257 shops closed

July 21, 2016 (MAPEL) – Business in Mapel town in South Sudan’s Western Bahr el Ghazal region has declined due to closure of up to 257 shops after the local traders in the area have become victims of lack of hard currencies after the government devaluation of its South Sudanese pounds.

Mapel town deputy chairperson of trade union, Thomas Bol, told Sudan Tribune on Wednesday that traders have decided to close down their shops due to losses they incurred as no US dollars to import goods for the neighbouring countries.

“The issue of Mapel market, the market is closed, now the operating shops cannot reach 50, if they are many, it is only 25 to 30 and the closed shops are 257,” said Bol.

“Our traders have declined because of dollar, everything is dollar that is why our traders are staying without doing their works, some of them have left for agricultural activities to cultivate groundnut or Dura. [It] is very bad but the issue is not about the road it is because of dollar, if you go to Juba, you cannot get anything, Wau you cannot get any benefit at your goods that is why the traders decided to close their shops,” he said.

Bol said that if they go to Wau to big business people, “they cannot compromise, they do say that the exchange rate of dollar is very high”, adding that if they decided to buy despite their high cost, they will latter on get nothing as a profit.

He said the last month incident in Wau has also contributed to the decline of businesses in the state since many suppliers in Wau town have allegedly experienced heavy losses after their shops were looted.

(ST)