Individuals and companies in Cabo Verde with bank loans who have been affected by the new coronavirus pandemic will benefit from a moratorium that will postpone payments until 30 September, the deputy prime minister and minister of Finance said in Praia on Tuesday.
Olavo Correia said that this moratorium, which was announced by the central bank and will be the focus of a new decree-law by the government, includes a ban on cancelling contractual credit lines and suspension of credit until the end of this period.
“It means that whoever is affected by this pandemic, micro, small, medium and large enterprises and individuals both in terms of home loans, and other loans, provided they prove they do not have an income or their income has been significantly affected by this pandemic will have a moratorium until 30 September, 2020,” he explained.
“Whoever is not affected by this pandemic should service their debts as usual,” he said, cited by financial news agency Reuters.
The deputy prime minister added that the government, along with the central bank and commercial banks, would find internal solutions to ensure that the measure is carried out, applied and respected.
Correia was speaking at a press conference where he announced that the government would alter the organic law of the Banco of Cabo Verde (BCV) to accommodate the exceptional measures adopted to combat the effects of COVID-19 on the economic and financial system.
The minister noted that the BCV had set up a credit line for the banking system in the amount of 45 billion escudos at an interest rate of 0.75% as a way of guaranteeing liquidity to commercial banks.
And because the current organic law only allows for the BCV to provide these loans to credit institutions for a period of up to one year, the government plans to make a one-off change to the organic law to extend that period to up to five years.
Source: Macauhub
