The Bank of Southern Sudan has put 40 million new Sudanese pounds ($20 million) into circulation in south Sudan to try to standardise the currency used in the semi-autonomous region, an official told Reuters.
Teams of fixed-point and mobile currency exchangers in planes, trucks, four wheel drives and canoes plan to circulate an additional 20 million pounds in the south by end-June, the official said. The pound was introduced in January under the terms of a 2005 peace deal that ended over two decades of north-south civil war. Many southerners saw the old currency, the dinar, as a symbol of northern Arab nationalism.
The dinar will cease to be legal tender on September 1 but two decades of conflict entrenched the use of at least four currencies in southern Sudan, said Kornelio Koriom Mayik, deputy president of the southern bank.
Ethiopian, Kenyan and Ugandan money will continue to be recognised as legal tender and exchanged for pounds until June 30. The southern bank or the Bank of Sudan in Khartoum will trade dinars for pounds until end-August, after which those seeking to exchange money will have to file a written request.
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