Because we have borrowed so much from abroad, we pay a rapidly rising amount of interest to nonSouth African creditors, and this is contributing to a large current account deficit – again, one of the biggest in our peer group. 7 Bold, S. and Harris, L. April 2018. ‘Identifying monetary policy rules in South Africa with inflation  expectations and unemployment’.
MSMEs, as you are aware, are the engines of growth across Africa. In 2018, before the pandemic, the International Finance Corporation had estimated a funding gap of USD331 billion for 3  SMEs in Sub-Saharan Africa. I expect that with the pandemic, this gap has increased substantially, with banks expected to fund a significant portion.