JOHANNESBURG: South Africa has doubled to six months the term of loans to small and medium-sized businesses to help them survive the Covid-19 recession and made other changes to make the credit easier to access, the treasury said on Sunday.

President Cyril Ramaphosa announced the 200 billion rand ($12.00 billion) loan scheme in April to help businesses, as part of stimulus measures to lessen the pandemic impact on South Africa's already shrinking economy. The loans are intended to meet urgent requirements, such as salaries, rents and contractual obligations.

Sunday's changes to the scheme include making "bank credit assessments and loan approvals more discretionary and less restrictive," the treasury said in a statement.