Opinion: South Sudanese Entrepreneurs Need To Take Charge of The Economy

By Elijah Chol Yak

Juba, Tuesday, April 11 (Jonglei Times)-You can be a politician, Medical Doctor, civil servant, banker or whatever trades that you play, but don’t forget to set up some business. A country’s economy isn’t grown only by big corporations; the SMEs play a big role in driving up the economy and employing a great number of people.

We can’t allow our economy to be run by foreign investors from the big enterprises to the micro enterprises, we must take initiatives and control the businesses and not necessarily wait for protective legislations against foreign investment. Don’t wait for any other time; even now you can take a shot at the business of your choice.

Talk less about the political dispensation; instead seek advice from those who have business acumen to guide you on what to do.
No single person or corporation can make an economy grow, the individual effort if combined with what others are doing is what drives a nation’s growth.

The many years of conflicts have disadvantaged us of cultivating an entrepreneurial spirit. Even those South Sudanese who were living as refugees in neighboring countries or those resettled abroad didn’t get opportunities to make investment, but they might have worked in some corporations.

Learning by observation isn’t entirely enough to give you an experience in starting a business but it gives you an advantage to begin learning with some kind of prior theoretical knowledge.

This week the international media launched a scathing media campaigns about South Sudan, from what is alleged to have been committed by both sides to the current conflict for the last two years to a group of South Sudanese gangs terrorizing residents in some suburbs of Australian cities.

All these messages carry different connotations and motives; you must have had read or watched some documentaries being peddled online with some glaring flaws and have no even a single iota of truth. Of course some issues being reported are true, yes we have killed ourselves, committed heinous atrocities, but we know sooner or later the judicial processes will be instituted to punish those involved and deter the rest from committing the same atrocities some day.

This negative propaganda will have a long-term impact to the resuscitation of our dying economy. Even if permanent peace is achieved today, investors will still be not confident to come back and invest in the country. There will be a grace period to be watched by many to see if we have learnt from our mistakes or will craziness creep in again and make us fight ourselves at the slightest provocation.

One critical calendar that the world will be watching is the 2018 national elections as stipulated in the Agreement on the Resolution of Conflict in South Sudan (ARCISS). Everyone will be watching to see if we shall conduct free and fair democratic elections that are devoid of post election violence.

This week, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) released the inflation figures, which have put the February figures at 202.5%; this is a scaring indicator for any investor and also for the local traders.

With the reduced government revenue, pulling out of donors and investors, there is high unemployment among the urban youths leading to a reduced purchasing power. Not many investors will be willing to take the risks many were ready to take in the years leading up to and immediately after independence.

But we have a population to feed, an economy that demands goods and services; we the youth must step in and fill the gaps being created in the economy because of closure of some foreign businesses and lack of new investors coming in.

We must change our mindsets from the desire from being job seekers to job creators.
Let’s till our land at least to sustain our subsistence needs, let’s focus on the huge fish potential especially along the Sudd. It will take long before an enabling environment conducive for smooth running of businesses and promotion of entrepreneurship is achieved.

The South Sudan Chamber of Commerce and Agriculture must position itself as a champion of promoting entrepreneurship among the youth and not just a mere club of big business people that uses it as a lobby for various issues affecting them. They need to form various entrepreneurship incubator centers across the country. These will act as catalyst for the mushrooming of the army of young entrepreneurs across the country.

The youth lack adequate skills that can help them identify business opportunities, run the businesses sustainably and even grow them. There ought to be a deliberate national plan to encourage youth self-employment. This is the only way in my view that we can get grip on running the affairs of our own economy.

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