Finance

KINSHASA (Capital Markets in Africa) – The Democratic Republic of Congo is looking for private partners to help fund a government-owned company created to buy all the country’s hand-mined cobalt. The new monopoly is aimed at better regulating small-scale mining and giving Congo an influence over cobalt prices. The country produces more than 60% of the world’s cobalt, an essential ingredient in lithium-ion batteries in electric vehicles, and some 20% of the metal is hand-dug…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – The largest Chinese oil refiner is seeking to offload millions of barrels of West African crude it no longer needs as the coronavirus squeezes the nation’s demand. Unipec, the in-house trading arm of refining giant Sinopec, is trying to sell at least five cargoes of West African crude that it already owns and would normally have shipped home, according to people familiar with the matter. China’s biggest refiner of…

LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa): The Brexit battle between the U.K. and the European Union resumed as British leader Boris Johnson clashed with the bloc’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier at the start of 11 months of talks on a future trade deal. The pound fell. Barnier said in Brussels that a “highly ambitious” trade deal is on offer for the U.K. — but only if Johnson signs up to strict rules to prevent unfair competition. Speaking minutes later in London, Johnson rejected Barnier’s…

NEW YORK (Capital Markets in Africa) – The biggest mystery left in Donald Trump’s inevitable impeachment acquittal is whether any Democrats will join Senate Republicans to give him a bipartisan vote to clear him of the House’s charges. Democratic senators who represent Trump-leaning states have to decide whether they will buck their party on what could be the most important vote before the November elections and risk alienating voters who like the president. The most vulnerable…

CAIRO (Capital Markets in Africa)- Egypt and Ethiopia will sign a final agreement on the schedule for filling a reservoir on the Nile River by end of February, which would potentially ease tensions between two of the U.S.’s African allies over the use of crucial water resources. The accord that includes mutual neighbor Sudan will spell out filling mechanisms in relation to the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam in drought, prolonged drought and prolonged periods of…

LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa)- The U.K. and the European Union begin their battle over a future trade deal on Monday, setting up 11 months of negotiations that risk ending in economically damaging failure at the end of the year. In a major speech in London, Prime Minister Boris Johnson will threaten to walk away from talks with the EU rather than accept demands from Brussels to sign up to the bloc’s single market regulations and the rulings of…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Cross-border trade in Africa brings to mind trucks backed up at border posts, corrupt officials and the smugglers trying to avoid them, and just all-around petty bureaucracy. That translates into delays, frustration and higher costs. No doubt it has limited trade between nations on the continent to just 15% of all export and import commerce compared with more than 70% in Europe. In 2020, that’s all supposed to change — or at least…