Banking

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – Old Mutual Ltd. suspended Chief Executive Officer Peter Moyo over what its directors called a “material breakdown in trust and confidence.” The insurer’s board, chaired by former Finance Minister Trevor Manuel, made the announcement hours before the 174-year-old company’s annual meeting with shareholders in Johannesburg without disclosing anything about alleged misbehavior. Chief Operating Officer Iain Williamson will serve as acting CEO. In a letter to shareholders, the company said the dispute stemmed…

LUSAKA (Capital Markets in Africa) – Zambia’s central bank raised its key interest rate for the first time since November 2015 in a bid to stabilize its currency, which is the world’s fourth-worst performer against the dollar this year. The Bank of Zambia raised the rate to 10.25% from 9.75%, Governor Denny Kalyalya told reporters Wednesday in Lusaka, the capital. Key Insights While the southern Africa nation’s annual inflation rate of 7.7% in April is…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Nigerian policy makers urged banks to turn on the taps and increase lending to stimulate the economy, or have access to a near-risk free way of making money choked off. The West African nation’s Monetary Policy Committee is using persuasion to get banks away from parking their cash in high-yielding government securities to divert these funds to the private sector. Lenders in the continent’s top oil producer were burnt after sliding…

LAGOS (Capital Martkets in Africa) – Nigeria’s Fidelity Bank Plc is seeking to boost customer numbers by 20% this year by pushing its digital channels and offering loans to low-income borrowers via their mobile phones. The bank hopes to increase its clients from 4.5 million in 2018 and expects return on equity to rise to 13% from 11.8%, Executive Director Gbolahan Joshua said in an interview. More than 150,000 customers have applied for digital loans since it started providing…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Godwin Emefiele looks set to get a second term as Nigeria’s central bank governor, which would make him the first person to do so in the 20 years since Africa’s biggest oil producer ended military rule. The 57-year-old former banking executive proved controversial in his first five years as monetary chief. Many analysts criticized his desire to keep a strong currency and curb imports, saying it deterred foreign investment and slowed Nigeria’s economic recovery…

NAIROBI (Capital Markets in Africa) – Bob Diamond’s change in strategy to build Atlas Mara Ltd. into a pan-African lender are helping a rival Kenyan banker fulfill a long-held objective of expanding on the continent. The company founded by the former Barclays Plc chief executive officer in 2013 is exiting four of the seven African nations in which it operates in return for 6.3 percent of Nairobi-based Equity Group Holdings Plc. That gives James Mwangi, the CEO of Kenya’s biggest…

NAIROBI (Capital Markets in Africa) – Equity Group Holdings Plc expects to lend as much as 420 billion shillings ($4.2 billion) during the next five years through a venture with Kenya’s largest mobile-phone operator by targeting small businesses. The nation’s biggest lender by market value and Safaricom Plc said last month they agreed to collaborate on financial services for their combined base of more than 30 million customers, ending a nine-year-long rivalry. Safariom “will support us to…