South Sudan is set to receive a loan of $112 million from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to address food insecurity across the country.
This was revealed on Monday following the visit to South Sudan by senior IMF officials.
South Sudan and the financial body reached the emergency financing agreement through IMF’s new Food Shock Window of the Rapid Credit Facility combined with a Program Monitoring with Board Involvement.
“This emergency financing under the new Food Shock Window will help South Sudan address food insecurity, support social spending, and boost international reserves,” a statement by IMF reads.
The money is expected to be approved by the IMF.
“South Sudan’s request for emergency support is subject to approval by IMF management and the Executive Board in the coming weeks. Ahead of the Executive Board consideration of this request, the authorities will implement several reforms to strengthen governance and transparency,” the statement seen by The Radio Community added.
More than 8 million people are said to be food insecure this year in South Sudan.
The combination of continued localized conflict, four consecutive years of severe flooding, and the rising price of staple commodities from Russia’s war in Ukraine has increased the number of people experiencing severe food insecurity, according to an October report by the government and UN agencies.
The IMF statement revealed that the authorities have committed to collaborate with trusted development partners to channel $20 million of the RCF disbursement to make use of their existing systems to provide immediate humanitarian assistance to help address food insecurity.
The loan will bring the total outstanding fund credit under emergency financing instruments to South Sudan to SDR 246.0 million, or 100 percent of its quota at the IMF.
In 2020, IMF gave South Sudan a loan of $52.3-million to address to mitigate the economic meltdown. It later approved $225 million grant to the Bank of South Sudan to initiate economic reforms and stabilize the exchange rate.
