Trade between Uganda and South Sudan is set to improve following the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) and the National Revenue Authority of South Sudan (NRA) in Kampala, Uganda, on Tuesday 19th September, 2023.

The agreement was signed between URA’s Commissioner General, John Musinguzi, and a delegation from South Sudan. The MoY will facilitate cooperation and collaboration between the two entities in the discharge of their respective statutory obligations.

According to the MoU, URA and NRA will provide each other with assistance in digital transformation programs like Regional Electronic Cargo Tracking System (RECTS), tax enforcement planning, information sharing, training, and benchmarks, among other things.

The MOU signed is expected to help in the reduction of cargo diversion of goods that are destined for South Sudan but diverted to DR Congo. It will also help in fighting the high risk involved in the smuggling of goods since the consignment will be tracked by URA to its final destination in South Sudan.

“It’s worth mentioning that, over the years, under declaration of goods by businessmen had led to the decline of non-oil revenue collection but with this MOU the parties will share information and help in the reduction of fraud made in scanning the original invoice and bill of lading inform of limiting the quantity and the actual price of the goods being imported in South Sudan,” a statement by NRA said.

The Ambassador of South Sudan to Uganda, H.E Simon Juach Deng, speaking at the signing ceremony, said the MoU is formalizing the relationship that already exists between the two countries. “Uganda is one of the neighbours that we are doing a lot of business with, and we have a lot to learn from them, more so from URA because they are ahead of us in revenue mobilization,” he said.

Musinguzi, the URA CG, highlighted that the collaborations will create a conducive environment for fair and compliant business and fight vices like smuggling. 

Athian Ding, the Commissioner General of the NRA, reassured the URA of their cooperation in the fight against the vice and said tighter border controls would be effected to mitigate it.

Early this year, URA and NRA signed a bilateral agreement where they resolved to implement joint border patrols and surveillance operations along the borderline to fight smuggling, a vice that continues to eat into the revenues of both countries.

While South Sudan is one of Uganda’s largest trading partners in the region, trade between the two countries is marred by challenges including insecurity, smuggling, and strikes by truck drivers, among others.