Banking

Goldman Sachs anticipated that Ghana will need six to nine months from the start of negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to reach a deal on a funded program, as it considered that authorities are not showing a sense of urgency to conclude an agreement with the IMF. It expected the government to rely on foreign currency reserves to meet its external financing needs in the near term given the lack of international market…

LAGOS (Capital Markers in Africa) – Fitch Ratings identified more than 600 reports on banks globally with meaningful cases of governance failure between 2020 and June 2022, out of more than 1,500 reports on banks that were subject to financial crime, governance and regulatory issues, or institutional scandals. First, it indicated that nearly 300 reports fell in the ”regulatory fines” category. It noted that the majority of the fines were minor and consist of small…

LUSAKA (Capital Markets in Africa) – Zambia’s central bank left its benchmark interest rate unchanged for a third successive meeting as it sees inflation in single digits over the next two years. The monetary policy committee held the rate at 9%, Governor Denny Kalyalya told reporters Wednesday in Lusaka, the capital.  While annual inflation quickened for the first time in a year to 9.9% in July and may remain elevated in the final quarter of this year and…

WINDHOEK (Capital Markets in Africa) – Namibia’s central bank raised borrowing costs by the biggest margin in almost two decades to safeguard its currency peg with South Africa’s rand and quell inflation.  The monetary policy committee lifted the rate by 75 basis points to 5.5%, Deputy Governor Ebson Uanguta told reporters in the capital, Windhoek, on Wednesday. That’s the biggest increase since September 2002. The hike brings Namibia on par with South Africa, which raised its benchmark interest…

KINSHASA (Capital Markets in Africa) – Democratic Republic of Congo’s central bank ordered that Afriland First Group SA’s unit in the country be placed under administration amid worries that credit problems at the lender could destabilize the financial sector. Central bank Governor Malangu Kabedi Mbuyi announced the measure on June 20 in a communique and in a letter to Afriland’s shareholders, seen by Bloomberg. The central bank has been concerned about Afriland’s risk profile since…

ACCRA (Capital Markets in Africa) – Ghana faces a looming fuel shortage as the central bank rations dollars after oil prices surged following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The monthly fuel import bill for the West African nation jumped to $450 million in May, from $250 million in January, according to two people with knowledge of the matter. The central bank is only offering about $100 million a month at its foreign exchange auctions, and licensed…