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Rwanda has secured a $109,4 million in emergency coronavirus funding from the International Monetary Fund, the first African country to do so, the fund said last Thursday.

The East African country has registered 84 coronavirus cases, data from the World Health Organisation shows, and Rwandans are grappling with high food prices as the government last Thursday extended a national lockdown by 15 days.

“The Covid-19 pandemic has ground Rwanda’s economy to a halt, creating an urgent balance of payments need,” Tao Zhang, IMF deputy managing director, said in a statement.

The loan, which comes under the Rapid Credit Facility, will help alleviate pressure on trade, tourism and foreign exchange reserves, while enabling greater health spending, the funding announcement said. While Rwanda was the first African country to secure this kind of coronavirus funding, the global lender said on Twitter it was “working hard on other requests”. – Reuters Africa.