South Africa receives $1bn NDB loan to help recovery from COVID-19

The New Development Bank has approved a $1 billion COVID-19 Emergency Program Loan to South Africa to support the country's economic recovery from COVID-19.

The loan will support the government in its efforts to contain the economic fallout of the pandemic and start economic recovery. The loan will finance creation of employment opportunities in South Africa, in particular the first phase of the Presidential Employment Stimulus aimed at creating and supporting about 700,000 job opportunities in the public sector, together with social protection measures for active labor market participants that temporarily lost their jobs, in order to help them remain in the labor market.