Niger

• The regional central bank (BCEAO) for the West-African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) has taken preemptive steps to better satisfy banks’ demand for liquidity and mitigate the negative impact of the pandemic on economic activity.
• The BCEAO first raised the liquidity made available to banks at its weekly and monthly auctions of March 23, allowing average refinancing rates to remain relatively close to the floor of the monetary policy corridor of 2.5 percent. This was followed, starting with the weekly refinancing auction of March 30, 2020, by the adoption of a full allotment strategy at a fixed rate of 2.5 percent thereby allowing banks to satisfy their liquidity needs fully at a lower rate.
• As announced on March 21, 2020, the BCEAO has also:
  • extended the collateral framework to access central bank refinancing to include bank loans to prequalified 1,700 private companies;
  • set-up a framework inviting banks to accommodate demands from firms with Covid19-related repayment difficulties to postpone for a 3 month renewable period debt service falling due, without the need to classify such postponed claims as NPL; and
  • introduced measures to promote the use of electronic payments.
• A plan has been presented to donors with an estimated cost of 7.4 percent of GDP, divided into an immediate health response and broader economic and social mitigation. Key elements are already being implemented, such as temporary tax relief for hard-hit sectors, two months of free utilities for vulnerable households, and distribution of food from the strategic reserve.

Main sources of information

• International monetary fund