The Editorial Team

World Bank Grants $750 Million Covid-Relief Loan to South Africa

JOHANNESBURGH (Capital Markets in Africa) – The World Bank approved the South African government’s request for $750 million to support efforts to offset the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. The loan was agreed almost two years after the National Treasury first approached the Washington-based lender for help financing a 500 billion-rand ($33 billion) relief package after the onset of the pandemic. The low-interest loan “will contribute towards addressing the financing gap stemming from additional spending…

Africa’s First Heat Officer Faces Climate Change in Sierra Leone

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FREE TOWN (Capital Markets in Africa) – From a distance, Kroo Bay, a slum in Sierra Leone’s capital of Freetown, resembles a gigantic overheating engine: Thousands of rust-colored tin shacks stand in rows under the sweltering West African sun, divided only by trash-filled streams of sewage. “It’s warm, warm, warm,” says Mariama Barrie, a 34-year-old mother of three who rents a one-room hut in the heart of the poverty-stricken district. “It feels like we’re being cooked…

Inflation Menace Vs Pandemic Recovery: Central Bank Guide

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Global central banks are set to spend 2022 diverging, as some take on the menace of inflation and others stay focused on boosting economic growth. The pandemic remains a risk to demand the world over, but after triggering a recession in 2020, its subsequent igniting of price pressures has also posed a challenge for monetary policy makers. They enter a new year having to tread carefully. Acting quickly to control prices could end up quashing expansions, especially…

Africrypt Investors Push Charges Despite Mystery Payouts

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JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – A group of Bitcoin investors are pushing for criminal charges against individuals who run a cryptocurrency platform in South Africa suspected to have been fraudulent, in a case that might prove challenging to prosecute. The investors are seeking the arrest of brothers Raees and Ameer Cajee, age 21 and 18, who operated the company, but haven’t been seen publicly since the scandal broke. That’s even after a mystery benefactor…

Ethiopia | Scores Killed in Air Strikes in Northern Ethiopia Since October

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ADISS ABABA (Capital Markets in Africa) – At least 143 people have been killed and 213 wounded in air strikes in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region since October last year, according to aid agencies. Civil war has been raging in Ethiopia for the past 14 months, pitting Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s federal forces against dissident troops loyal to the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front. The conflict has swung in Abiy’s favor over recent weeks, with the Tigrayans retreating…

U.K. Refuses to Rule Out Tougher Covid Rules by Christmas

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Health Secretary Sajid Javid declined to rule out stronger U.K. Covid-19 rules before Christmas after the nation’s top health advisers urged greater limits to contain infections they estimate are running in the hundreds of thousands per day. “It’s time to be more cautious: we know this thing is spreading more rapidly,” Javid told BBC News on Sunday.When asked whether he could guarantee a so-called circuit-breaker lockdown wouldn’t be imposed within days, he replied: “There are…

StanChart Hit With $61 Million Fine After Spreadsheet Error

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LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa) – Standard Chartered Plc has been handed a record fine by the U.K.’s top banking regulator after a spreadsheet error resulted in the emerging markets-focused lender overestimating its access to U.S. dollar funding.The Bank of England’s Prudential Regulatory Authority imposed a 46.6 million pound ($61 million) penalty on the lender for five reporting errors between March 2018 and May 2019, according to a statement Monday. That was compounded in one case by…

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