15/05/2026
THE MAN WHO CLOSED THE BACK DOOR
Amb. Moun Deng Ajuet and the Digital Revolution at South Sudan’s Revenue Authority.
There is a particular kind of leader who arrives not to manage a system but to change it. Not to maintain what exists but to replace what is broken.
South Sudan has not always been lucky with that kind of leadership in its institutions. But in February 2026, one man walked into the Commissioner General’s office at SSRA and made it immediately clear which kind he was.
Amb. Moun Deng Ajuet did not come to keep things warm. Thanks to the President H.E Salva Kiir Mayardit for spotting him.
The Problem He Inherited:
To understand what the Commissioner General walked into, you need to understand what non-oil revenue meant in South Sudan before he arrived. Oil has long funded over 90 percent of the national budget. Everything else - - duties at borders, business taxes - - was treated as secondary. And because it was treated as secondary, it was managed accordingly. Manual processes. Paper declarations. Cash payments moving through human hands with little oversight and even less accountability. The money was always there. The trucks never stopped crossing. But somewhere between arrival and the treasury, billions disappeared. Year after year. So consistently it had become, for many, simply the way things worked.
That was the system he inherited.
The Decision That Changed Everything:
He moved fast. Within weeks he announced a national revenue target of 160 billion SSP per month and ordered digital infrastructure extended to new stations across the country. Then he made the decision that would define his tenure. Under Presidential Order No. 35/2025, every government payment was required to flow through the National e-Tax System. The informal workarounds that had existed for years were made illegal overnight. The problem was a system that made dishonesty easy and accountability optional. Remove the cash entirely and the architecture of evasion collapses with it.
The digital system is currently generating approximately 130 billion SSP every month. Over the past eight months, cumulative collections have reached nearly 1 trillion South Sudanese Pounds. The highest month on record was April 2026. A country averaging 1 to 2 billion SSP nationally just a few years ago.
He set a target of 160 billion when most considered it out of reach. The country is nearly there.
He closed the back door. And the money finally started arriving.
By Mading John Yak De Choldit
South Sudan Political and Economic Analyst
Author of South Sudan’s Longest Journey to Freedom and Democracy
[email protected]
