AFRICA’S GOVERNANCE RESPONSE TO COVID-19 | PRELIMINARY REPORT 2020 2.4 Fiscal and Monetary Measures AU member states are implementing various fiscal and monetary policies to manage the pandemic and its economic impacts. Thus, Egypt announced a USD 6.13 billion package, part of which is intended to support its health and tourism sectors. Egypt has also postponed the payment of real estate tax for three months, lowered energy costs for industries, lowered interest rates by 300 points, and postponed debt repayments by six months for firms and individuals alike. Similarly, Tunisia has established an emergency package plan that entails the postponement and exemptions of debt payments, and the rescheduling of taxes for lowincome individuals. Angola has postponed the filing of taxes. The Reserve Bank of Malawi deferred interest rate payments and imposed a three-month moratorium on interest and principal repayments for loans for microfinance institutions and financial cooperatives. Namibia has launched an Economic Stimulus and Relief Package to meet increasing expenditures in health, wage subsidies, income grants, and guarantees to support low interest loans for small and agricultural businesses and individuals. Senegal has dedicated some USD 490 million for its economic sectors directly affected by the pandemic, including tourism, transport and agriculture. Part of these funds are being used to pay the salaries of retrenched staff. contracts The South African Reserve Bank has also reduced the lending rate by 100 bps to 4.25 percent and instituted measures to ease liquidity strains in funding markets, while its government has launched a unified approach to enable banks to provide debt relief to borrowers. Kenya’s central bank has lowered its policy rate by 100 bps to 7.25 percent and lowered commercial banks’ cash reserve ratio by 100 bps to 4.25 percent. It has also increased the maximum tenor of repurchase agreements from 28 to 91 day, announced flexibility to banks regarding loan classification and provisioning for loans that were performing on March 2, 2020 but were restructured due to the pandemic. Further, it suspended the listing of negative credit information for borrowers whose loans became non-performing after April 1 for six months and encouraged commercial banks to extend flexibility to borrowers’ loan terms. Similarly, The Bank of Uganda has reduced its Central Bank Rate (CBR) by 1 percentage point, directed Supervised Financial Institutions (SFIs) to defer payments, provided liquidity to commercial banks, purchased treasury bonds held by microfinance deposit taking institutions and credit institutions, and granted exceptional permission to the SFIs to restructure loans of corporate and individual customers. It has also issued guidelines for the SFIs on credit relief and loan restructuring. The Gambia’s central bank has increased its monitoring of commercial banks’ forex net open positions and committed to maintaining flexible exchange rates to absorb balance-of-payments (BOP) shocks. Many of the central banks are also increasing their financial surveillance. South Africa’s revenue administration has accelerated reimbursements and tax credits and allowed SMEs to defer certain tax liabilities. Cote d’Ivoire is facilitating the postponement of debt repayments particularly for SMEs. The Gambia Revenue Authority has extended the filing and payment of 2019 taxes by two months. Likewise, Senegal has escalated tax refunds to companies, deferred payment of taxes for small and medium enterprises up to 15 July 2020 and provided support through the renewal of all fixed-term Countries have established special funds to manage COVID-19 and its impacts. Thus, Tunisia has established a special fund for businesses that 43