Opportunity | Nigeria Telecommunications Industry Grows Despite Economic Woes

Opportunity | Nigeria Telecommunications Industry Grows Despite Economic Woes

LAGOS, Nigeria, Capital Markets in Africa: Growth in Nigeria’s telecommunications industry picked up in the three months through March even as the economy shrunk for the first time in more than a decade, according to a government report. Telecommunications expanded 5 percent in the first quarter, compared with 3.5 percent in the three months through December, and contributed 8.8 percent to gross domestic product, the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics said in a report on Thursday. The economy contracted by 0.4…

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Financing | Airports of Mozambique Plans to Reorganize $500 Million Debt

Financing | Airports of Mozambique Plans to Reorganize $500 Million Debt

MAPUTO, Mozambique, Capital Markets in Africa: Airports of Mozambique plans to restructure loans of $500 million after a slide by the nation’s currency against the dollar undermined the state-owned company’s ability to repay loans, its chairman said. The southern African nation has said it is in the process of restructuring another $535 million loan extended to state-owned Mozambique Asset Management after the company failed to meet a $178 million interest payment last month. The government admitted in…

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Private Equity | Barclays Africa Said to Attract Abraaj-Led Group for Stake

Private Equity | Barclays Africa Said to Attract Abraaj-Led Group for Stake

LAGOS, Nigeria, Capital Markets in Africa: Buyout firm Abraaj Group is leading a group of investors planning to bid for a minority stake in Barclays Plc’s African unit, according to people familiar with the matter. Abraaj is working with financial advisers and is in discussions to team up with other investors including a Middle Eastern sovereign wealth fund, the people said, asking not to be identified as the information is private. The private equity firm may bid for as…

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Investment | DuPont Plans to Double Its African Seed Business in Five Years

Investment | DuPont Plans to Double Its African Seed Business in Five Years

LAGOS, Nigeria, Capital Markets in Africa: DuPont Company plans to more than double its African seed business, excluding the mature South African market, over five years as governments and farmers on the least-developed continent seek to boost crop yields, a director of the company’s Pioneer unit said. “From a revenue perspective we’re aiming for over 20 percent in terms of the compound annual growth rate,” Prabdeep Bajwa, the African regional business director for Pioneer, said in…

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Infrastructure | IMF’s Lipton Warns Africa Against Infrastructure Debt Traps

Infrastructure | IMF’s Lipton Warns Africa Against Infrastructure Debt Traps

LAGOS, Nigeria, Capital Markets in Africa: African nations need to find the right balance when pursuing infrastructure projects to avoid falling into deeper debt traps, according to David Lipton, First Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund. “Infrastructure projects can be very successful in supporting growth if countries pick the right projects and carry them out in an efficient fashion,” Lipton said in a interview in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi on Tuesday. “Mistakes or inefficiencies…

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Finance | Swaziland secures US$63 million AfDB loan to finance smallholder irrigation project

Mbabane, Swaziland, Capital Markets in Africa: Swaziland has secured a US $63 million (ZAR 2.01 billion) loan to finance the second phase of the Lower Usuthu Smallholder Irrigation Project (LUSIP II) in the south eastern part of the country. The LUSIP II, approved by the African Development Bank Board on Wednesday, May 5, 2016, is a follow-up project to the LUSIP-I which was completed in 2010. The project was a response to the Government’s recognition…

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Investment | Nigerian Ntel Pursues US$1 Billion Investment for Mobile-Broadband Growth

Investment | Nigerian Ntel Pursues US$1 Billion Investment for Mobile-Broadband Growth

LAGOS, Nigeria, Capital Markets in Africa — Nigerian Internet provider Ntel is looking more than US$1 billion to invest in 4G mobile broadband by 2020, to take advantage of a rising number of smartphone users in the country. “We are speaking to investors and to banks who are interested in a growth story for Africa,” Chief Executive Officer Kamar Abass, 51, said in an interview on March 31. “We are seeing the very beginnings of a…

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