Dec 23, 2020(Nyamilepedia) — South Sudan’s Vice President, Dr. James Wani Igga on Tuesday said that the government is going to use oil money for developing agricultural sector in the country.
Speaking during the released of the Ministry of Petroleum Unified Human Resource Policy Manual report in Juba, Dr. Wani revealed that the government plans to boost agriculture by investing revenues generated from the oil sector into agricultural production.
“We should really used the the oil to promote agriculture. Even if we have a lot of money but we don’t have food than what is the meaning. So food production yor food security, together with infrastructures, Food comes first followed by others. Therefore, the first cent or pound of oil must go to agriculture if we are serious,” Dr. Wani stressed.
The top government official stressed the need to enact environmental laws to minimize harmful impact caused by oil exploration.
“There are already many complaints from our people about setbacks in the environment such as pollution. We really need to manage that immediately because their lives are even more expensive than the oil,” he expressed.
Dr. Igga, who is the chairperson for Economic Crisis Committee said his Committee will embark on reforming the petroleum sector next year.
“We in Economic Crisis Committee are centering on improvement and reform of non-oil but soon after that next year, we are for sure going to move to Petroleum sector so that together we can determine it and conduct reform,” Dr. Wani said.
Igga stressed the need for capacity building in oil sector to equipped the employee with knowledge on how to increase oil productivity in the country.
South Sudan’s oil has fallen greatly since June 2014 when it was trading at nearly $112 per barrel. The crude oil in plat-wires market price had reached $ 59 per barrel in January 2019 before declining to $ 29.13 in May 2020.
