Clifford Chance

Coronavirus: Government Financial Aid to Business - An African Guide

22 April 2020

As well as a public health crisis, the Coronavirus (Covid 19) pandemic is having significant adverse consequences on many African economies.

Though African nations currently count for only a fraction of global coronavirus cases, experts worry that their cash strapped and under equipped healthcare systems make them ill prepared to tackle large scale outbreaks and the significant resources devoted to debt servicing in many of them mean that financial shocks could be severe in the context of the pandemic.

Governments in Africa are taking measures to mitigate the economic impact, including a range of actions to provide financial support to businesses. These support packages include:

• Measures to ensure the continued flow of credit to businesses, through guaranteed or subsidised loans or central bank asset purchase programmes;
• Relief from taxes, through tax holidays, deferrals or other relief; and
• Outright grants to businesses.

This guide is up to date as of 20 April 2020 and provides a review of the main actions taken by certain African governments in which Clifford Chance operates through our global Africa practice and regional hub in Casablanca It also includes input from various law firms that we regularly work with as local counsel It does not, however, cover all actions by Governments and Central Banks to manage monetary policy or regulators’ prudential actions specifically directed at the financial sector

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