Banking

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Nigeria’s base interest rate is becoming more and more irrelevant. That’s the view of some analysts after the Monetary Policy Committee in Africa’s biggest oil producer held its key rate for the 14th straight meeting on Thursday, despite inflation being above its target range of 6 percent to 9 percent for more than three years. Central bank Governor Godwin Emefiele is instead using money-market instruments to rein in liquidity and protect the naira,…

HARARE (Capital Markets in Africa) – Zimbabwean banks urged the government to introduce wide-ranging reforms amid signs the country is facing an economic crisis reminiscent of a hyperinflationary spiral a decade ago. Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube is preparing to announce the 2019 budget later this month. He’s juggling a ballooning budget deficit, foreign-exchange shortages that are fuelling inflation, and an inability to raise foreign loans because of $5.6 billion of debt arrears. The fiscal shortfall, which was more than triple…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Fidelity Bank Plc of Nigeria plans to boost investment in technology as a way of cutting costs and increasing profit over the next three to four years. The Lagos-based lender already hiked spending on digitization by more than 40 percent this year, and plans to increase its outlay further still, Chief Operating Officer Gbolahan Joshua said in an interview in the West African nation’s commercial hub. Technology will allow the bank to…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – In emerging markets, the shallow reach of traditional money systems means there’s less resistance to new financial technology. At the Sifa Children’s Center, shacks made of corrugated metal serve as classrooms for some 300 pupils, circling an expanse of dusty, hard-packed earth that’s both playground and meeting space. Beyond the school stretches Gatina, one of the poorest neighborhoods in Kenya’s capital of Nairobi. Headmaster Francis Wanjala is standing in…