The Bank of Namibia (BoN) announced on Wednesday that some of the COVID-19 relief measures will remain in place to support economic recovery.

In a media statement issued on Wednesday, BoN’s Strategic Communications and International Relations Director, Kazembire Zemburuka, said BoN has decided to continue with some of the measures instituted to cushion households and businesses from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and its related restrictions on economic activities.

He confirmed that the new measures provided for in the Determination on Policy Changes in Response to Economic and Financial Stability Challenges Following the Fallout of the COVID-19 Pandemic (BID-33) came into effect on April 2, 2023, and are valid until April 1, 2024.

The Determination BID-33 was extended in 2021 and 2022 until March 31, 2023, and revived again on Monday.

Zemburuka added that the decision to continue with some of the COVID-19 relief measures was necessitated by the need to revive key sectors where economic activity was downscaling due to pandemic-related restrictions.

"Despite the resumption of normal business activities, some of the key sectors of the economy that were hit hard by COVID-19 still require more time to recover from the impact of COVID-19 levels," said Zemburuka.

He clarified that the bank has extended credit relief measures to allow banking institutions to continue giving relief to the clients affected by COVID-19 and to make sure that key economic sectors can recover from the pandemic's effects.

In an effort to ensure that the relief measures implemented by banking institutions accomplish the desired results and maintain the stability of the financial system, Zemburuka concluded that BoN would continue to carefully monitor their implementation.