South Sudan’s ministry of interior’s department of passports and immigration announced on Thursday that it will receive booklets for printing passports and nationality on Saturday and will next resume the printing of national documents after nearly one year.
The passports and immigration identification server had been blocked by its host, the German company Muhlbauer, after the government of South Sudan failed to pay an annual software license fee of around $60 million.
Speaking to reporters at a press conference in Juba, Director General of the Nationality and Passports at the ministry of interior, Gen. Atem Marol Bair, disclosed that 22,000 nationality IDs and 39,000 diplomatic passports will be available this week.
“We have talked to German company Muhlbauer and they promised us by Saturday, we are going to receive 22,000 cards of ID and we are going to receive 39,000 cards of a diplomatic passport,” Maral disclosed this to reporters in Juba on Thursday.
He noted that the government has cleared almost half of the outstanding arrears it owed the company, which specializes in smart card and passport technology.
“The Ministry of Finance paid 1.4 million U.S. dollars to German company Muhlbauer and now we are left with a balance of 5 million U.S. dollars and it will be cleared by the government very soon,” he said.