AfDB to provide $500,000 to back Egypt against COVID-19

02 / 06 / 2020

By Marwa Nassar - -

The African Development Bank (AfDB) allocated a $500,000 emergency assistance grant to Egypt to provide food relief, and to contribute to restoring the livelihoods of vulnerable populations severely affected by COVID 19.

The AfDB intervention will seek to complement ongoing activities by Egypt’s government to mitigate the effects of the virus pandemic on Egyptians.

The Egyptian government’s Action Plan for COVID-19 aims to preserve the gains made by the Egyptian economy and has earmarked EGP 100 billion (approximately $6.6 billion) in a funding package to help fight the spread of COVID-19 and bankroll treatment.

Egypt’s cabinet has also announced a raft of measures to mitigate against the effects of the pandemic. These include paying EGP 500 monthly salary for informal workers whose livelihoods were disrupted for three months; providing EGP 1 billion for exporters as part of a package of measures aimed at supporting the industrial sector; and easing measures and procedures for micro, small and medium sized enterprises (MSMEs) to allow access to finance in support of business operation and employee retention.

The bank’s extension of emergency assistance funding is based on the scale of the emergency triggered by the pandemic which is clearly an urgent challenge the government is combating; and the proposed activities can be carried out expeditiously and effectively within the required time frame.