Finance

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) — The Biden administration’s plan to pursue a 50% reduction in U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 is hugely encouraging. It’s already spurred other nations, including Canada and Japan, to adopt more aggressive plans of their own. But global progress in the coming decades will hinge on what happens in developing nations, especially India and China, now the biggest emitters of greenhouse gases. There’s another looming problem, too. In a…

LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa) — The U.K. tax office will begin demanding information on cryptocurrency holdings from individuals suspected of tax avoidance or evasion. Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs is set to update its “Statement of Assets” form, which all individuals being investigated must fill out, a spokeswoman for HMRC said Wednesday. “We take robust action to make sure that everyone pays the tax due—from individuals operating in the hidden economy through to action…

NEW YORK (Capital Markets in Africa) — Joe Biden took the riskiest step of his presidency with a call for higher taxes on the wealthy to fund a massive investment in the nation’s social safety net, betting he could sell the American public on sweeping change following a pandemic that exacerbated economic and social divides. Biden devoted his first address to a joint session of Congress to a call for “a once-in-a-generation investment in our…

NEW YORK (Capital Markets in Africa) — President Joe Biden is poised to unveil a plan that would raise taxes on the income, investments and estates of the wealthiest Americans to levels not seen in more than four decades, a move that will trigger intense debate in Congress about whether and how to address income inequality. Biden’s “American Families Plan,” itself featuring the biggest expansion of federal support for lower-income and middle-class Americans in decades,…

ADDIS ABABA (Capital Markets in Africa) — MTN Group Ltd. and a consortium led by Vodafone Group Plchave bid for telecommunications licenses in Ethiopia, as wireless service providers look to tap the last remaining large market in the world. Ethiopia will take a few days to review the technical offer and then open the financial bids, said Brook Taye, an adviser in the Finance Ministry. Earlier on Monday, Kenya’s largest telecommunications provider Safaricom Plcsaid it was…

CAIRO (Capital Markets in Africa) — Egypt said it hopes to soon end a dispute over compensation regarding the huge container vessel that blocked the Suez Canal last month. The Suez Canal Authority, which claimed $916 million in damages from the Ever Given’s owners, is “eager” to reach a settlement amenable to all parties, Chairman Osama Rabie said in a statement. The 400-meter-long vessel, owned by Japan’s Shoei Kisen Kaisha Ltd., blocked the vital waterway for six…

LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa) — The U.K. estimated that delivering on its ambitious targets to slash greenhouse gas emissions by the middle of the century will cost 651 billion pounds ($904 billion), but the benefits of protecting the environment will be far greater. The government’s official impact assessment of a target to cut emissions by 78% by 2035 indicates that action will generate a boost to the economy of about 918 billion pounds. That’s…