The central bank has announced intentions to withdraw some of the COVID-19 relief measures introduced in 2020, and were meant to cushion both the banking industry and the economy from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Despite the disruption by the RussiaUkraine war, the Bank of Botswana’s (BoB) decision has been influenced by economic recovery since the beginning of the year, propelled by the prevention measures and availability of effective vaccines as well as other mitigation strategies have allowed for reopening of economies and resumption of normal economic activities.

“The bank has decided to withdraw some of the COVID-19 relief measures with effect from January 1, 2023,” said BoB Governor, Moses Pelaelo. Some of the relief measures to be withdrawn include liquidity support, repurchase agreement maturity, collateral pool and provisioning for non-performing loans under the repayment moratorium. The relief measures were announced on April 1, 2020, following extensive consultation with stakeholders, including commercial banks and the Financial Stability Council. However, other measures such as liquidity support and limits for Mobile Money transactions, remain unchanged and may be reviewed as may be necessary, from time to time, said the Governor. Meanwhile, Pelaelo encouraged banks to continue to support economic activity and recovery by extending loans and other credit facilities to firms in a cost-effective manner while observing sound credit underwriting standards and practices.