The Editorial Team |

Absa Breaks With South African Rivals on Dividends – For Now

JOHANNESBURG (Bloomberg) — Absa Group Ltd. has opted to break with most of its South African rivals and keep preserving capital at the expense of paying dividends — but pledged to look at ways to make up for the pause when appropriate. South Africa’s third-largest bank expects to gradually resume dividends from the first half of 2021, unlike peers who have already resumed payouts. Should loan growth fail to take off as hoped, excess capital…

Lendable Plans as Much as $180 Million of Fresh Lending in 2021

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) — Lendable Ltd. is raising funds to enable fresh loans of $120 million and $180 million this year to customers in Africa, South East Asia and Latin America, according to co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Daniel Goldfarb. The London-based lender, whose financiers include New York investment firm Waterfall Asset Management LLC, is seeking $15 million to $25 million in combined debt and equity and separately expects “a larger transaction for a…

Nigeria Unemployment Rate Rises to Second Highest on Global List

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) — Unemployment in Africa’s largest economy surged to the second-highest on a global list of countries monitored by Bloomberg. The jobless rate in Nigeria rose to 33.3% in the three months through December, according to a report published by the National Bureau of Statistics on its website Monday. That’s up from 27.1% in the second quarter of 2020, the last period for which the agency released labor-force statistics. A third…

Covid Hit These Countries Hard. Now They Face Big Vaccine Bills

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) — Colombia has already paid a steep price in the pandemic with more than 61,000 deaths from Covid-19. Now the South American nation faces another cost: about $850 million to immunize its population. South Africa, Colombia and other middle-income countries hit hard by Covid have lined up behind richer ones to buy vaccines in hopes of averting more suffering. They’ve pursued cheaper doses from AstraZeneca Plc, as well as far more…

Shoprite Eases Africa Push to Focus on Domestic Market Gains

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JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) — Shoprite Holdings Ltd. switched its focus firmly toward taking market share in its home market of South Africa, after opting to withdraw from Nigeria and Kenya and move more cautiously in Angola. The more guarded approach comes after the continent’s biggest supermarket chain struggled with supply disruptions and getting money out of some countries. The company is seeking to take advantage of its increased dominance of the South African…

Bloomberg Wealth: How to Sound Smart About Bitcoin Now

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) — There comes a point in nearly every financial conversation these days when someone drops the “B” word. Bitcoin, that is. Maybe it’s pandemic boredom. Maybe it’s the fact that every billionaire out there wants us to know whether they hate it or love it. In any case, the cryptocurrency has been on — hmm, let’s say an… interesting… ride — over the past few weeks. So I thought I’d write you…

Biden Prepares Nationwide Victory Lap to Promote His Rescue Plan

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) — President Joe Biden got his giant coronavirus stimulus bill. Now, he wants to make sure he gets the credit. The president will hold a ceremony on Friday to sign his $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan into law, kicking off a victory lap that aides and allies describe as a campaign to persuade the nation that he and fellow Democrats are responsible for preventing millions of Americans from enduring poverty…

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