Issued on: 27 MARCH 2020
George Gachara
George Gachara is the managing partner of HEVA Fund, which provides financing to early-stage businesses in the creative industry in East Africa.
“In light of recent developments concerning the coronavirus disease, we are taking necessary precautionary and safety measures to ensure that the wellbeing of our team, our beneficiaries and all those we interact with remains a top priority.
“We are experiencing the adverse impact on the creative sector and ecosystems, and as a result, in order to provide relief to our beneficiaries, we decided to suspend all interest charges owed to us for the period of the next 60 days – in line with the national emergency declarations. Furthermore, we are looking to extend a repayment holiday, until the situation is stabilised.
“We are aware that as a result of the crisis, creative business cycles have slowed down or stopped. We are in conversations with our board, our stakeholders and the relevant government agencies, to roll out targeted interventions to protect creative labour from job losses, to forestall loss of capital and to help build the resilience of practitioners and businesses to revive after the emergency is over.”
