⁍ South Sudan’s cabinet agreed on Friday to change the country’s currency in order to improve the economy.

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⁍ The country’s currency is the South Sudanese pound, adopted when the country gained independence from Sudan in 2011.

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⁍ Many citizens are keeping their money at home, while others say ‘if they take their money to the banks, it will be confiscated

– South Sudan, the world’s newest country, is changing its currency for the first time since it gained independence in 2011, Reuters reports. “The Cabinet has decided that the current currency should be changed … This is to improve our economic situation,” says the country’s information minister. The country’s current currency is the South Sudanese pound, adopted when it gained independence from Sudan in 2011 after a long civil war. Another war, along with graft and mismanagement, led to an economic crisis in the oil-producing nation. In July, a central bank official announced that South Sudan had run out of foreign exchange reserves and could not stop the pound’s depreciation. Many citizens are keeping their money at home, while others say ‘if they take their money to the banks, it will be confiscated,’ he says. He did not give a date when the new currency will be introduced. “We will have the new currency anytime … this is the information to the people and the people will be given a time limit,” he says.