Select Page

Hardap SMEs encouraged to apply for COVID-19 loan

Hardap SMEs encouraged to apply for COVID-19 loan

The Office of the Hardap Governor has encouraged all SMEs affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in the region and country wide to apply for the COVID-19 SME Loan Scheme offered by the Ministry of Finance.

“As the highest office in the region, we would like to encourage all qualifying SMEs to visit one of the participating banks, FNB, Bank Windhoek, Standard Bank and Nedbank to apply for assistance and benefit from the N$500 million set aside for affected SMEs,” they said in a statement.

They said the scheme is designed to assist qualifying SMEs that are hard hit by the pandemic to stay afloat is an initiative by the government in partnership with private banking institutions and the Bank of Namibia.

The qualifying criteria for SMEs are that a business must be adversely impacted by the lock-down, a business must be registered business entity, a business must have an annual turnover not exceeding N$10 million per annum, a business must be in good standing with their commercial bank, prior to 1 March 2020, a business must be registered with the Namibian Revenue Agency (NamRA) and a business must have insufficient normal borrowing capacity to fully fund its monthly operating expenses.

Loan conditions to qualifying SME are that funds should be used to cover fixed monthly costs such as salaries and wages, rent, other utility costs and some basic working capital, a repayment holiday of 6 month, payment of loan over a 54 month period an interest rate of the loam is offered at the prevailing prime rate.


 

About The Author

Mandisa Rasmeni

Mandisa Rasmeni has worked as reporter at the Economist for the past five years, first on the entertainment beat but now focussing more on community, social and health reporting. She is a born writer and she believes education is the greatest equalizer. She received her degree in Journalism at the Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST) in June 2021. . She is the epitome of perseverance, having started as the newspaper's receptionist in 2013.