Zimbabwe’s Black Market, Where the Dollar Trades Against Itself

Zimbabwe’s Black Market, Where the Dollar Trades Against Itself

HARARE, Zimbabwe, Capital Markets in Africa: In Zimbabwe — the country that once suffered 500 billion percent inflation — one dollar may now cost you as much as $1.07. A shortage of banknotes is resulting in a new black market more than seven years after Zimbabwe abolished its own money, the Zimbabwean dollar, and adopted the greenback and other foreign currencies to avoid exactly that sort of unofficial trading. The cash crunch has intensified in…

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Ghana to Sell $1 Billion Eurobond Despite Concern Over Costs

Ghana to Sell $1 Billion Eurobond Despite Concern Over Costs

ACCRA, Ghana, Capital Markets in Africa: Ghana will sell $1 billion Eurobonds this year despite concerns about rising borrowing costs. The West African nation will offer the debt in either July or September, Minister of Finance Seth Terkper said in an interview in the capital, Accra. The country hired three transaction advisers and remains open to other funding options, Terkper said. A failure to issue a Eurobond would leave a $750 million hole in the 2016 budget with an…

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Zimbabwe Threatens to Scrap Bank Licenses Over Export Rules

Zimbabwe Threatens to Scrap Bank Licenses Over Export Rules

HARARE, Zimbabwe, Capital Markets in Africa: Zimbabwe’s central bank threatened to cancel the licenses of banks and foreign-currency dealers found to have violated new exchange-control regulations aimed at easing a dollar shortage. The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe last week sent a directive changing the way banks and other authorized foreign-currency dealers are required to handle export earnings, adding measures aimed at encouraging companies to export their products through an incentive payment, according to a copy of the circular obtained…

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Angolan Party Rejects President’s Daughter as Oil Company Head

Angolan Party Rejects President’s Daughter as Oil Company Head

Luanda, Angola, Capital Markets in Africa: Angola’s main opposition party rejected President Jose Eduardo dos Santos’s decision to name his billionaire daughter Isabel as chairwoman of the state oil company and said it would ask parliament to debate the appointment. “The measure confirms once more the practice of nepotism by President Jose Eduardo dos Santos,” the National Union for Total Independence of Angola, known as Unita, said Tuesday in an e-mailed statement. “Angolans should not accept…

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Desperate for Funding, Nigeria Prepares to Face Bond Investors

Desperate for Funding, Nigeria Prepares to Face Bond Investors

LAGOS, Nigeria, Capital Markets in Africa: The odds are stacked against Nigeria as it looks to raise debt on the international markets for the first time in almost three years. Finance Minister Kemi Adeosun is leading a team of officials that will meet bond investors at London’s five-star Corinthia Hotel on Tuesday at a time when Africa’s biggest economy is on the verge of a recession, oil production has fallen to about a three-decade low, and the budget deficit…

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Ghana Mulls Syndicated Loans After Abandoning Eurobond Sale

Ghana Mulls Syndicated Loans After Abandoning Eurobond Sale

ACCRA, Ghana, Capital Markets in Africa: Ghana is considering raising money through private bank loans, abandoning plans to sell as much as $1 billion of Eurobonds on concern its inability to raise targeted budget revenue may spark an investor selloff. With-lower-than-expected oil prices, the government can’t raise all the revenue needed to meet the budget gap, the Ministry of Finance said in a statement on its website. That may worry investors in Ghana’s Eurobonds and prompt them to…

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Nigerian Ex President Goodluck Jonathan Defends Record on Curbing Corruption

Nigerian Ex President Goodluck Jonathan Defends Record on Curbing Corruption

LAGOS, Nigeria, Capital Market in Africa: Former Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan defended his government’s record on fighting corruption and denied his successor’s assertion that the country’s Treasury was left empty when he handed over power last year. Jonathan, 58, was succeeded in May 2015 by President Muhammadu Buhari, who accused the previous administration of looting billions of dollars and leaving the country’s finances “virtually empty.” “There’s no way he would have inherited an empty Treasury,” Jonathan said in…

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