Economist: ‘Support small businesses while combatting coronavirus’

The head of the economics department of the International University of Sudan, Dr Majda Mustafa, has called on the government to mitigate the effects of coronavirus (Covid-19)  measures on small and medium businesses.

Dr Mustafa stressed that the government should increase government spending that stimulates buying, selling and production, so that the poor and middle classes will continue to be able to purchase their daily basic needs.

She wants the government to direct banks to provide soft finance to small- and medium-sized businesses that need liquidity, and postpone any instalments due.

Donation initiative

A number of Sudanese exporters launched a donation initiative to confront the spread of the coronavirus under the slogan: “Your contribution contributes to prevention”.

The initiative started after Sudan declared a state of health emergency on Monday, and closed all border crossings.

Mohamed Abbas, one of the initiators, said that the initiative started with SDG 100,000 ($1,181*), donated by several exporters. The initiative received a positive response from other exporters within a day. Abbas said he hoped the initiative will raise SDG 20 million ($364,000).

Abbas indicated that the exporters will coordinate with the Ministry of Health to find out what is required at which stage to defeat the coronavirus.

* USD 1 = SDG 55.1375 at the time of publishing this article. As effective foreign exchange rates can vary in Sudan, Radio Dabanga bases all SDG currency conversions on the daily middle US Dollar rate quoted by the Central Bank of Sudan (CBoS).

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