JUBA RESTRICTS FOREIGNERS FROM SMALL-SCALE RETAIL TRADE

Nile Post

Juba County says foreigners should leave small-scale retail to South Sudanese, but the commissioner has clarified that the directive does not order them out of the country.

Juba County authorities have directed foreign nationals to stop operating small-scale retail businesses, saying the sector should be reserved for South Sudanese citizens.

The directive was issued this week by Juba County Caretaker Commissioner Kalisto Lado while addressing traders at Kubri Haboba Market in Gudele Two.

Lado said foreigners should not operate businesses such as chapati stalls, small retail shops selling onions and tomatoes, charcoal businesses and commercial motorcycle transport, arguing that such activities should provide opportunities for South Sudanese.

“Any foreigner must not be a retail trader in Juba County. No foreigner should do small business,” Lado said.

“You cannot leave your country to come and make chapati, retail kilos of onions and tomatoes. What will our women in South Sudan sell?”

Lado said foreigners would continue to be welcome in South Sudan but should focus on wholesale trade, manufacturing and other larger investments that can create jobs for South Sudanese.

“To all Somalians, Ethiopians, Eritreans, Kenyan, Ugandans and all other nationals. We welcome you, we will give your security and have you stay without discrimination, but the retail business is only for South Sudanese,” he said.

The directive has raised concern among foreign traders, particularly Ugandans who have a longstanding presence in South Sudan’s commercial sector.

However, Lado has since clarified that he did not order foreigners to leave Juba or South Sudan.

He said reports that he had given foreign nationals seven days to leave the country were false, adding that a county commissioner does not have the authority to expel foreigners from South Sudan.

“I made a statement during the cleaning campaign, saying the foreigners should not be trading in retail business, that they should be in wholesale. This is not sending people away,” Lado said.

The clarification means the immediate directive is about participation in small-scale retail rather than the expulsion of foreign nationals from South Sudan.

South Sudan’s Embassy in Kampala has also distanced the national government from Lado’s remarks, saying the commissioner does not speak for the national government.

Akuol Abijok Deng, the South Sudanese charge d’affaires in Uganda, urged Ugandans in South Sudan not to panic, saying the statement did not represent the position of the Government of South Sudan.

The development comes amid a wider regional debate over foreign participation in small businesses.

In Kenya, the government recently gave foreign nationals operating businesses 90 days to regularise their immigration status, work permits, business registration and licences following President William Ruto’s remarks about reserving some small-scale businesses for Kenyans.

The government said the exercise was intended to ensure compliance with the law before enforcement begins.

Ugandans have maintained a significant commercial presence in South Sudan for years. A 2022 report by Daily Monitor cited estimates of between Shs900,000 and Shs1.5 million living, working or doing business in South Sudan, although the figure covers Ugandans in various activities and should not be interpreted as the number of traders affected by the latest directive.

For now, Lado’s position is that foreign nationals may continue living and investing in South Sudan but should move away from small-scale retail and concentrate on wholesale, manufacturing and larger businesses.

Written by newsroom-radiopacis