IMF approves immediate disbursement of a $131 million loan for Togo to combat covid-19

To help it combat the coronavirus, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will provide Togo with a concessional loan of $131.3 million. The loan is repayable over 30 years at a zero interest rate. 

The Bretton Woods institution announced the loan approval in an official note published after the sixth review under the Extended Credit Facility (ECF) program with Togo. 

With the new facility, “disbursements made under this arrangement now totals around $336.4 million,” the statement further added. 

The monies which are to be disbursed immediately are nearly four times the amount expected initially. 

According to the IMF acting president and deputy managing director, Mitsuhiro Furusawa, the economic recovery which was consolidating has now been impaired by the covid-19 pandemic. However, authorities, he added, are taking immediate measures to deal with the social and economic impacts of the pandemic, while preserving the budgetary achievements it has hardly reached in recent years. 

The IMF facility is quite timely as a few days ago, President Faure Gnassingbé announced the creation of a XOF400 billion fund to help local businesses and populations cope with the crisis. 

Ayi Renaud Dossavi/togofirst.com