The Editorial Team |

Zambia Prepares Ground for `Inevitable’ Post-Vote IMF Aid

LUSAKA, Zambia, Capital Markets in Africa — Zambia, reeling from a copper-price slump and a power shortage, is readying for “inevitable” assistance from the International Monetary Fund that may be finalized in December, Treasury Secretary Fredson Yamba said. A deal will only come after general elections set for Aug. 11 and until then, the government will work on lowering electricity and fuel subsidies that the fund last month estimated could cost the southern African nation $660 million a year, Yamba…

Kenya Regulators Help Investment Bank Free Funds Held in Lender

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NAIROBI, Kenya, Capital Markets in Africa — Kenyan regulators are working with Genghis Capital Ltd. to help the investment bank free up cash locked in Chase Bank Kenya Ltd., an associated company which is being nursed back to health after collapsing following a run on deposits. Authorities are collaborating with the caretakers of Chase Bank so that clients of Genghis wanting to redeem some of their mutual fund holdings can access their money, Capital Markets Authority acting Chief…

Guinness Nigeria’s Profit Tumbles During Economic Downturn

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LAGOS, Nigeria, Capital Markets in Africa — Guinness Nigeria Plc, the country’s second-biggest brewer, said profit fell 83 percent in the nine months through to the end of March during a downturn in Africa’s largest economy. Earnings after tax were 864 million naira ($4.35 million) in the period, compared with 5.2 billion naira a year earlier, the local unit of Diageo Plc said in a statement on the Nigerian Stock Exchange’s website. Revenue dropped 18 percent to…

Exotix Says Nigeria is `Uninvestable’ Due to Currency Policy

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LAGOS, Nigeria, Capital Markets in Africa — Nigerian foreign-exchange controls are undermining political reforms by President Muhammadu Buhari and making the country “uninvestable” for buyers who measure returns in dollars, Exotix Partners LLP said. The reorganization of the state oil company’s structure, changes to the nation’s bureaucracy and Buhari’s efforts to curb corruption all point to “root and branch” changes to the country’s governance structures, Hasnain Malik, head of frontier markets strategy at London-based Exotix, said in an interview…

OPEC Invite Has Gabon Mulling Best Response to Oil Nightmare

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Libreville, Gabon, Capital Markets in Africa — Gabon is considering a return to OPEC and trying to rally fellow African nations for a more coordinated response to slumping oil prices, President Ali Bongo Ondimba said. Some members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries have asked the West African nation to rejoin the group after 21 years as producers seek to “fight together” to stabilize prices, Bongo said during an hour-long interview at Bloomberg headquarters in New York. Gabon hasn’t…

Nigeria Economics Loses to Politics as Buhari Takes Naira Stand

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LAGOS, Nigeria, Capital Markets in Africa — History is repeating itself in Nigeria, where the more President Muhammadu Buhari is urged to devalue the naira, the more he digs in his heels. Investors are beginning to surmise that politics — rather than economics — will determine the currency’s immediate future. Even as growth slows, inflation rises and investors flee Africa’s biggest oil producer, analysts in a Bloomberg survey are backing away from estimates a devaluation will take place…

Mozambique Central Bank Hikes Policy Rate to Curb Inflation in April

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MAPUTO, Mozambique, Capital Markets in Africa —The Bank of Mozambique has decided to increase key policy interest rates to the highest level in four years , in its efforts to curb inflationary pressure. The Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee, which met in Maputo on 20 April, announced that the Standing Lending Facility (the interest rate paid by the commercial banks to the central bank for money borrowed on the Interbank Money Market) will rise immediately by…

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