By James Chatim

The Vice President for Economic Cluster, Dr Bol Mel, has tasked the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) to align the country with international standards and best practices in combating money laundering and terrorism funding.

This initiative aims to remove South Sudan from the Financial Action Taskforce’s grey list.

In February 2025, South Sudan was listed among the 14 African states with weak measures to combat money laundering and terrorism financing, according to two reports from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).

Senior economist Dr. Abraham Maliet Mamer said the government has a role to ensure that there is no money laundering or cash cross-bordering.

In an exclusive interview with The City Review on Tuesday, Dr. Maliet said the money is supposed to be kept in a financial institution such as a bank and not at home or in a store.

“Could anything happen and you are keeping this large cash out of the banking system, then you are on your own because you could be robbed, attacked, anything, even fire or some other conditions can destroy that money,” he said.

“So, the correct advice is to keep your money in the bank as much as you can because it is illegal to keep the money out of the bank. Although our laws are not very specific to how much money can you keep at home.”

However, he noted that some of the reasons why people keep their money at home is because they believe the banking systems are not beneficial.

“If you take your money to the bank, there is no interest rate and saving. You end up paying a lot of charges and so on.”

 “And then sometimes the cash may not be available. So, you need your money, you don’t get it,” Dr Maliet explained.

He highlighted that in past months, there has been no cash in the bank, saying some people were given cheques, and when they went to the bank, they were told that there was no money.

The economist appealed to the banks to encourage clients by providing some benefits to the bank and the cash owners.  

 “They need to be put in action because physical and monetary policies are combined. So, when the bank keeps the money, then they should introduce the lending so that when you give the money as a loan, there will be some benefit to the bank and the owner. Because the money kept in banks is not owned by these institutions, but the depositors,” Mamer said.