OPEC Fund pledges USD 20m emergency grant aid to to support Maldives' Covid-19 response

An emergency support fund of USD 20 million has been pledged in support of the Maldives government’s Novel Coronavirus (Covid-19) response efforts by the development fund of the organization that represents the globe’s largest oil producers, the OPEC Fund for International Development.

The generous fund was pledged in order to support Maldives economic recovery plan, the country's economy has taken a direct hit due to the pandemic which surfaced in China in December 2019 and has since swept across most of the globe at a fast rate, infecting and killing millions.

The OPEC Fund revealed that the emergency support funds will support the island nation’s economic recovery plan that includes an economic relief package aimed at mitigating socio-economic impacts caused by the pandemic, specifically since the country’s tourism industry has been on a downward spiral since restrictive measures have been implemented against the spread of the disease.

This comes as part of the series of public sector loans approved by OPEC’s governing board, the total recorded at USD 130.5 million. The loans are being provided to Egypt, Tanzania, Mali and Nicaragua alongside Maldives.

This is a part of the extensive package of new funding totaling USD 390 million which was approved by the board to support operations in developing countries worldwide.

This is among many of the financial support being extended to the Maldives government by several financial institutions worldwide, including from the World Bank which provided USD 17.3 million, Asian Development Bank which provided USD 600,000 and the European Union which provided USD 3.28 million in order to support the island nation’s Covid-19 response efforts.

Maldives suspended issuing on-arrival visas to all inbound tourists from 27 March onwards and the country’s President, Ibrahim Mohamed Solih has earlier revealed in an address to the people, that the country’s tourism industry began seeing the impacts of the pandemic, long before the emergence of the first two cases on 7 March.

The tourism industry contributes heavily to the state revenue and foreign reserves, and Maldives Minister of Finance, Ibrahim Ameer earlier stated that the number of tourist arrivals projected for 2020 is at 845,000, which is an over 50% drop compared to the previous year.

As of Saturday, there are 29 confirmed cases in the country and it discovered the first community transmission on Wednesday after a Maldivian woman tested positive to the disease, despite having no recent travel history or contact with a positive patient. Since then, atleast three clusters have been discovered over the course of the past three days, with the most number of cases being reported on Friday, recorded at five. The latest case was reported early Saturday and authorities have projected over 97,000 people to contract the fatal virus in the country.