South Africa’s small and medium-sized businesses will have five years to repay loans taken out under a government scheme to help cope with the coronavirus crisis, the Treasury said on Tuesday, announcing keenly-awaited details of the plan.
President Cyril Ramaphosa announced the scheme, which involves bank loans guaranteed by the state, in April to help businesses with an annual turnover of less than R300 million ($16.5 million).
The loans are intended to meet urgent requirements such as salaries, rents and contractual obligations.
“The loan amount will be disbursed to the customer in up to three monthly installments,” the Treasury said in a statement, adding banks would carry out due diligence on borrowers.
The companies will not have to pay anything back to the banks for the first three months and will then have five years to pay off the loan and interest, it said.
The interest rate will be the repo rate of the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) plus 3.5%, so currently 7.75%.
All major South African private banks are part of the scheme and will share the risks with the treasury according to a pre-determined loss-sharing mechanism, the statement said.
Many of South Africa’s small and medium-sized firms were thrown into disarray when the government introduced a lockdown at the end of March to try to contain the coronavirus pandemic, as they lost much of their revenue but still faced fixed costs.
Most have now been allowed to operate with 50% of their workforce under partially eased restrictions, but many have warned it will take months to return to normal as supply chains have been disrupted and demand remains weak.
The loan guarantee scheme is part of a R500 billion package announced by Ramaphosa to try to stave off an economic crisis in Africa’s most industrialised country, which was already in recession before the coronavirus reached its shores.
He said in April the scheme would support more than 700,000 firms employing a total of around three million people.
The Treasury has provided a guarantee of R100 billion for the scheme and will increase it to R200 billion if required, it said.
