African Development Bank approves $288-million virus loan to South Africa

The African Development Bank on Wednesday, July 22, approved a $288-million (249-million-euro) loan to South Africa to help fight the coronavirus and mitigate the economic fallout of the pandemic.

South Africa is the hardest-hit country on the continent, with over 380,000 cases and at least 5,368 fatalities recorded to date.

It ranks among the top 5 countries in the world in terms of confirmed infections.

“The board of directors of the African Development Bank (AfDB) has approved a loan of approximately R5 billion ($288 million) to the government of South Africa, as the country battles one of the largest COVID-19 caseloads in the world,” the AfDB said in a statement on Wednesday.

The loan falls under the AfDB’s $10-billion coronavirus response budget and was prepared following “a request from the government of South Africa.”

It is the AfDB’s first budget support to the country.

Africa’s most industrialized economy is expected to contract by between 6.3% and 7.5% due to the pandemic, according to the AfDB.

The country was already in recession before the coronavirus outbreak with a registered gross domestic product growth of just 0.2% in 2019 – the lowest in a decade.

“South Africa’s ability to respond to the pandemic has implications for neighboring countries as well as the continent as a whole, given its position as Africa’s second largest economy after Nigeria,” the AfDB said. – Rappler.com