Amidtackling the growing COVID-19induced impacts, the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) has announced it will avail financial backing for banks they should provide for the tourism and hospitality sector. The centraland has ordered banks to provide a working capital loan for hotels and tour operatorsthat considered hard-hitsub-sectors of the economy. The loan will be effective for six months starting from May 2020. Commercial banks are required to provide the loan at a five percent maximum interest rate. For instance, Dashen Bank SC alone has received close to a 600 million birr swift financing from the central bank.
Based on a six month scenario, the hospitality sector together with tour operators needed some three billion loan repayment rescheduling for one year to be considered as a bailout.
