The Oakland Institute takes a closer look at South Sudan’s largest land deal to date – the granting of a 49-year lease of 600,000 hectares of land to US-based firm Nile Trading and Development Inc (NTD) by the shadowy Mukaya Payam Cooperative in March 2008. For a sum equivalent to around US$25,000, NTD has full rights to exploit all natural resources in the leased land during this period.