Features | - Part 247

Nigeria Economics Loses to Politics as Buhari Takes Naira Stand

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…

Fast-Moving Consumer Goods: Challenges and Opportunities in Africa

Posted on by The Editorial Team

LAGOS, Nigeria, Capital Markets in Africa — Africa represents a large and growing opportunity for fast-moving consumer goods companies and retailers with the rapid expansion of Africa’s consumer class. At an average 5% growth, African countries’ booming consumer demand outspans the developing world. The average GDP per capita in Africa over the last five years has grown by over 11%. According to a report by McKinsey, GDP per capita is the single most important driver…

Philosophy of Investment | To fight or flight – why risk can pay off

Posted on by The Editorial Team

LONDON, Capital Markets in Africa — If you ask most people how they make decisions, they’ll probably tell you they look at the pros and cons carefully and, once they’ve weighed up all the evidence, they make their choice based on reason, logic and factual information. In fact, this is not how people generally make decisions. They often make them quickly, based on intuition and gut feeling – and even apparently well-informed, considered decisions can…

Nigeria | Easing Cycle Over but Committee to Hold-Off on Tightening

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LAGOS, Nigeria, Capital Markets in Africa —-The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) will be meeting next week (21st and 22nd March 2016) – for the 2nd time in the year – since its last meeting in January 2016 to review developments in the domestic and global fronts as well as take key policy decisions. This meeting is coming against the backdrop of renewed optimism in the global economy, albeit tepid; sustained sub-optimal domestic economic performance and…

Managing African Equity Portfolios in a Challenging Environment

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The Annus Horibilis In a year that felt like an annus horribilis for global investing and where most asset classes from commodities to bonds and equities declined, African equity markets were not spared the rout in 2015. Market returns in US dollars for 2015 Source: Bloomberg The MSCI Emerging and Frontier Markets Index for Africa excluding South Africa fell 22.1% in 2015, although the two largest and most liquid markets fared worse, with Nigeria and Egypt…

Mozambique: A Soft Landing in 2016 — Tiago Dionisio, Chief Economist

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Mozambique’s long-term economic outlook remains upbeat Economic activity in Mozambique slowed in 2015. The latest data released by the National Statistics Bureau (INE) showed that real GDP expanded at a more modest 5.9% YoY in 2Q15. This is well below the growth rates seen in the previous four quarters, which averaged 7.4%. The mining and construction sectors remained the main growth drivers of the economy, improving 17.9% and 13.1%, respectively, from the same period of 2014….

Excitement over “People Power” in Africa will not continue in 2016 — Control Risk

Posted on by The Editorial Team

NAIROBI, Kenya, Capital Markets in Africa — People power witnessed in 2014 and 2015, for example in changes of government in Burkina Faso and Nigeria, will be proved limited in 2016. A combination of elections, constitutional pressures and financial difficulties will test governments across the region, including in Chad, Uganda, Congo (Brazzaville), Angola and South Africa. Incumbents will however retain their hold on power. These are some of the key messages of RiskMap 2016, published…

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