In a June 17 statement, the government of Madagascar announced the soon launching of an economic stimulus package targeting more than 980,000 small businesses.
This a financial plan of nearly 280 billion ariary ($73 million) consisting mainly of loans targeting small farmers and agricultural distributors, as well as businesses in the tourism, trade, handicrafts and manufacturing sectors. The loans that will be granted through three different mechanisms will have interest rates below 10% with repayment periods of 6 to 24 months.

Madagascar has 1,378 confirmed cases on its territory and the new strategy is expected to alleviate the burden stemming from the pandemic on the private sector, which has been particularly hard hit.

The new plan will rely mainly on microfinance institutions that finance businesses at lower costs than commercial banks, whose interest rates are currently estimated at between 20 and 40%.

Moutiou Adjibi Nourou