Kenya’s budget deficit for this financial year could increase due to revenue shortfalls and coronavirus-related disruptions, the finance minister said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. Ukur Yatani, who set the deficit at 7.5% of GDP when he presented the budget in June, did not say how far the gap was likely to expand, adding that they were developing a plan to cover it. “It might be just cutting on some expenditures, particularly the slow-moving projects, and… some state agencies are doing well so we are likely to get some substantial dividends,” Yatani told Reuters.

South African Airways needs short-term funding from the government by the end of next week for the state carrier’s business rescue process to continue, its administrators said on Thursday, Reuters reported. “It is prudent to advise affected persons of the company’s dire financial position,” they said in a statement.

Kenya’s two biggest banks are probably over the worst as far as potential loan losses go, but may still struggle to boost revenue in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, according to AIB-AXYS Africa, Bloomberg News reported. Equity Group Holdings Plc increased first-half provisions eightfold, while KCB Group Plc’s rose almost four times from a year earlier, hurting earnings. The nation’s lenders are helping customers restructure their debt after the Covid-19 outbreak stalled economic output and shut schools.

A World Bank-backed power plant that provides a tenth of Nigeria’s electricity is at risk of a default on its loan payments because of a severe dollar shortage in the continent’s biggest economy, according to three people briefed on the matter, the Financial Times reported. The $900m Azura-Edo Independent Power Plant in Edo state has been unable to source dollars through the Central Bank of Nigeria, which has restricted access to the greenback in an effort to support the local naira currency, according to an industry executive and a financier briefed on the matter.

Tullow Oil warned it risked defaulting on a debt facility if it does not resolve a potential liquidity shortfall, as the Africa-focused explorer slumped to a $1.4bn pre-tax loss for the first half of the year, the Financial Times reported. The London-listed company said on Wednesday that a “potential liquidity shortfall” threatened its ability to satisfy requirements at a “redetermination” next January of its reserves-based lending facility.

Ethiopian Airlines is in talks over possible involvement in the rescue of flagship carrier South African Airways (SAA), the head of the airline told Reuters on Friday, Reuters reported. SAA hasn’t made a profit since 2011 and has been under a form of bankruptcy protection since late last year. Creditors have approved a restructuring plan, but the government needs to find at least 10 billion rand ($580 million) of funding for it to work.

Ethiopian Airlines Group is among companies in talks with South Africa’s government about potentially offering support to the country’s insolvent state airline, according to people familiar with the matter, Bloomberg News reported. Africa’s biggest carrier is considering ways to help bankrupt South African Airways fly again after more than five months of dormancy, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the talks are private. Taking a stake in the carrier is one of the options under discussion, they said, though negotiations are ongoing and an agreement may not be reached.

South African retailer Truworths International Ltd said on Thursday it will advance funding of 6.5 million pounds ($8.62 million) to its British footwear unit Office as part of a rescue plan, Reuters reported. The group as a whole, which sells clothes, jewellery and homeware, as well as shoes, has been hit by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and store closures because of lockdowns. On Thursday, it said its headline earnings per share, South Africa’s most closely-watched profit figure, fell by 28.2% in the year to June 28.

South Africa’s Comair Ltd will require up to 1.2 billion rand ($72 million) of funding and will have to cut a fifth of its workforce to restart operations, administrators in charge of restructuring the private airline said, Reuters reported. The airline, which has been under a form of bankruptcy protection since May, will be able to start operations in December if a business rescue plan presented late Wednesday is approved, they said.

The economic fallout from the Covid-19 crisis is likely to tip several of the world’s poorest countries into debt distress, forcing official creditors and private-sector lenders to accept a reduction or restructuring of loan repayments, the Paris Club group of creditor countries said on Tuesday, the Financial Times reported.