MTN, Africa’s No. 1 mobile service provider, said it is reducing jobs and cancelling plans to expand in South Sudan as the world’s newest country struggles with inflation and currency depreciation, BusinessDayLive reported.

The MTN workforce will be reduced from 170 to 80 people and plans to build 40 communication towers are on hold, said Khumbulani Dhlomo, the company’s head of corporate services.

South Africa-based MTN invested $170 million in South Sudan in the past two years and hasn’t seen a profit, Dhlomo told reporters on Tuesday in the capital, Juba. In fact, subscribers have decreased, he said. “People now have to choose between buying a phone, buying airtime, and buying bread.”

MTN has 1 million subscribers in South Sudan, Dhlomo said.

It’s not the only South African company pulling back or pulling out of South Sudan. SABMiller, which was bought by AB InBev last year, said in January it planned to close its brewery in South Sudan this month due to difficulties in obtaining foreign exchange to buy raw materials, ITWeb reported.

SABMiller has 237 employees. Thousands of people and businesses will be affected by the closure.

In December, South Sudan abandoned its official fixed exchange rate and moved to a floating rate. Inflation was 202.5 percent year-on-year in February due to rising food and non-alcoholic drink prices, ITWeb reported. Inflation rose 18.6 percent month-on-month in February, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

The third biggest crude oil producer in sub-Sahara, South Sudan won independence from Sudan in 2011. In December 2013 civil war erupted after a dispute between President Salva Kiir and former Deputy President Riek Machar.

It’s not just companies leaving South Sudan. A growing number of people are leaving the country and they’re going to Sudan in search of food, according to the U.N. refugee agency, 12NewsNow reported.

The United Nations refugee agency says food insecurity is forcing a growing number of South Sudanese to seek refuge in Sudan. About 38,000 people from South Sudan have fled into East and South Darfur since the end of January, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

The situation could quickly get worse with many children separated from their families. The U.N. says 2.3 million people have fled their homes since December 2013.

There is a chance MTN will shut down in South Sudan, Dhlomo said, according to BusinessDayLive.

The landlocked country pumps about 160,000 barrels of oil a day.

“The biggest challenge is the exchange rate of the U.S dollars,” Dhlomo said. “It’s either the U.S. dollars are too expensive for the company, or not there. We are trying as much as possible to do what we can, so that at the end of the day we don’t find ourselves in a position where we have to close the company.

“If the economy doesn’t change, the dollar keeps on doing what it is doing, then you can’t survive, and there is a possibility to close down.”

MTN South Sudan has been embroiled in recent wage disputes with employees accusing it of wage discrimination, ITWebAfrica reported.

Some employees told ITWeb Africa that there is a pay gap between local and foreign staff and employees who complained were fired.

Foreign nationals are skilled expatriates employed by MTN and paid in U.S. dollars, Dhlomo said. They have to be compensated for the hardships experienced in relocating from their home countries. They earn more than locals.

“But there is no compensation discrimination in my view,” he said. “We have different pay formats for different staff categories. For example, when local staff get a 13th (paycheck), the highly skilled expatriates get nothing.”

Dhlomo told Reuters the company had reduced foreign staff numbers 75 percent, and would cut 55 percent of local staff.

MTN’s most recent financial statements included foreign exchange losses of 434 million rand in South Sudan, as a result of the depreciation of the South Sudanese pound by 509 percent against the U.S. dollar, BusinessDayLive reported.

Dhlomo said MTN subscriber numbers had dropped 10 percent since October, and the company was expecting more losses.

It shelved plans to install 40 new cellular transmission towers and 100 third-generation (3G) transmission sites.

The International Monetary Fund predicted South Sudan’s economy would contract 5.3 percent in the last year, BusinessDayLive reported:

In its most recent financial statements, MTN reported figures from South Sudan as part of its “small opco cluster,” which increased its subscriber base 7.3 percent to 37.4-million last year.

Benin, the Republic of the Congo, Guinea Bissau, and South Sudan had shown healthy double-digit subscriber growth, the results statement said.

Despite weak economic conditions, revenue increased 1.6 percent to 147 billion rand ($9.8 billion US) supported by positive growth in Benin, Zambia, Guinea Bissau and South Sudan. Difficult operating conditions in Yemen, Afghanistan, Liberia and Guinea resulted in a revenue decline.