Globeleq Acquires Private Power Generation Company in Nigeria

Globeleq Acquires Private Power Generation Company in Nigeria

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) Globeleq, a leading independent power generation company in Africa, has confirmed it will take a 74% majority equity stake in an existing Nigerian power business called CPGNL Limited (CPGNL), which will be rebranded as Globeleq Power Solutions Nigeria Limited. The current owner of the business, the Clean Energy Group, will retain the remaining 26% shares. CPGNL has a portfolio of assets that serve commercial and industrial customers mostly in the…

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Ultra-Low Interest Rates Here to Stay: 2021 Central Bank Guide

Ultra-Low Interest Rates Here to Stay: 2021 Central Bank Guide

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) — Central banks are set to spend 2021 maintaining their ultra-easy monetary policies even with the global economy expected to accelerate away from last year’s coronavirus-inflicted recession. In Bloomberg’s quarterly review of monetary policy that covers 90% of the world economy, no major western central bank is expected to hike interest rates this year. China, India, Russia, and Mexico are among those predicted to cut their benchmarks even further. Only…

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Can Nigeria Escape Becoming a Failed State?: James Gibney

Can Nigeria Escape Becoming a Failed State?: James Gibney

LAGOS (Bloomberg Opinion) — This is one of a series of interviews by Bloomberg Opinion columnists on how to solve today’s most pressing policy challenges. It has been condensed and edited. James Gibney: About two weeks ago, more than 300 schoolboys were freed after being abducted from a boarding school by gunmen in northwest Nigeria, an incident that drew widespread media attention. What do this episode and its murky resolution tell us about Nigeria and…

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Bitcoin’s Rally Comes to a Halt as Prices Fall Most Since March

Bitcoin’s Rally Comes to a Halt as Prices Fall Most Since March

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) — Bitcoin fizzled in Monday trading as the famously volatile cryptocurrency pulled back after a spectacular new-year rally. Prices fell as much as 17% in the biggest drop since March before recovering. The losses are small in the context of Bitcoin’s broader rally, with a 50% jump in December alone. After a parabolic 2020, the digital currency had started the new year with a bang, surging as high as $34,000…

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Gold Rises to Eight-Week High on Dollar Outlook, Real Yields

Gold Rises to Eight-Week High on Dollar Outlook, Real Yields

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) — Gold climbed to a eight-week high, topping $1,900 an ounce, as lower U.S. real yields and a weaker dollar helped the metal build on the biggest annual advance in a decade. Silver jumped, while platinum was little changed after touching the highest since 2016. Real yields — the difference between nominal benchmark bond yields and the rate of inflation — fell close to last year’s nadir. The decline is…

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South African Covid Strain Raises Growing Alarm in the U.K.

South African Covid Strain Raises Growing Alarm in the U.K.

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) — The new coronavirus strain that emerged in South Africa is even more problematic than a mutated form that prompted new lockdowns across much of the U.K., health authorities said on Monday. “I’m incredibly worried about the South African variant,” U.K. Health Secretary Matt Hancock said on BBC radio Monday, citing a conversation over the Christmas holiday with his counterpart in South Africa. “One of the reasons they know they’ve got a…

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Ghana’s Costly Wait for Post-Brexit Deal With U.K.: Supply Lines

Ghana’s Costly Wait for Post-Brexit Deal With U.K.: Supply Lines

ACCRA (Capital Markets in Africa) — The first consignment of Ghanaian shipments to the U.K. to face post-Brexit tariffs docked at Portsmouth last night, including 185 metric tons of bananas, the majority of which were so-called Fairtrade. Because Britain and the European Union reached a trade deal so close to the divorce transition deadline of Dec. 31, some other “continuity” deals — those intended to roll over the terms of trade the U.K. enjoyed as…

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