Standard Bank on Sunday became the first lender to announce measures to assist small businesses battered by the spread of the Covid-19 virus.
The bank, which is South Africa’s biggest bank by assets, in a statement said it has come up with a a range of options available to support your business, including the “Coronavirus Business Interruption Payment Scheme.”
“This scheme will launch on the 1st of April and strives to support small and medium-sized business with a payment holiday for 90 days,” the bank said.
“Repayment will be structured to capitalise on interest & fees. This is an automatic adjustment later but there is an opt-out option.”
For companies to qualify to benefit from the scheme, they would have to have an annual turnover of less than R 20 million per year and that their business current account must be paid up to date.
The department of Small Business Development last week also announced that it will soon launch a debt relief fund aimed at assisting businesses adversely affected by Covid-19 with details of the fund yet to be worked out.
Standard Bank also announced it had also approved a payment holiday from 1 April to 30 June for student loan customers who are studying full time.
“This will be at 0% interest and with zero fees. This is an automatic offer and no applications are required.”
