Features

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – WorldRemit Ltd., a U.K. company that specializes in money transfers into Africa, plans a new funding round in the next six months ahead of a potential initial public offering or buyout. The fast-growing financial technology firm is seeking more cash as it continues to expand, Andrew Stewart, managing director of operations in the Middle East and Africa, said in an interview in Johannesburg on Wednesday. Founded in 2010 by…

NAIROBI (Capital Markets in Africa) – Kenyan forces ended an Islamist militant siege at a hotel and office complex in the capital that left at least 14 people dead and highlighted the threat still posed by al-Qaeda-linked fighters to East Africa’s largest economy. Using hand grenades, automatic rifles and a suicide-bomber, the militants stormed 14 Riverside in Nairobi on Tuesday afternoon, a venue popular with business travelers and Kenya’s elites and home to offices of…

TUNIS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Tunisia’s powerful labor federation said it will go ahead with a day-long strike on Thursday after talks with the government collapsed, a new hurdle for authorities under intense pressure to cut spending. The powerful General Labor Union, or UGTT, had been pressing for higher public sector pay. But the raises it sought would undercut an economic reform plan that was a condition for a $2.9 billion International Monetary Fund loan. The…

KINSHASA (Capital Markets in Africa) – Democratic Republic of Congo opposition leader Martin Fayuluwill go to court to challenge results that showed he lost last month’s presidential election. Fayulu claims official results showing rival opposition candidate Felix Tshisekedi won the Dec. 30 poll were rigged and has urged his supporters to protest against them. Fayulu topped an opinion poll before the vote, and Western diplomats have said an observer mission run by the country’s influential Catholic Church found…

LUSAKA (Capital Markets in Africa) – Zambia deported another of Israeli diamond billionaire Lev Leviev’s managers at an emerald mine where he is embroiled in a $51 million dispute, Leviev’s local lawyer said. Immigration officials took Sergey Kuznetsov, a Russian who was Leviev’s only remaining manager at the operation and was in charge of the vault where the gems were stored, to the airport and put him on a plane, lawyer Dickson Jere said by phone….

KINSHASA (Capital Markets in Africa) – The surprising outcome of a flawed election demands scrutiny and a willingness to hold any malefactors to account. After a long-overdue election marred by irregularities and a delay in reporting results, opposition leader Felix Tshisekedi has been provisionally declared the next president of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Under happier circumstances, cheers might be in order for Congo’s first peaceful transition of power since independence in 1960. A particle of good news is certainly overdue:…