The Editorial Team |

Nigeria Orders Mobile Subscribers to Link Phones to ID Numbers

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) — Nigeria’s telecommunications regulator ordered mobile-phone users to link their devices to their national identity numbers, raising the prospect of millions of lines being blocked. Subscribers have until Dec. 31 to comply with the requirement, the Nigerian Communications Commission said in a statement Tuesday on its website. Failure to do so will result in their phone lines being cut off in January, it said. Africa’s largest economy had about 196…

Johnson Appeal for Brexit Help Frustrated by Summit Deadlock

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LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa) — Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s last-ditch plea for European Union leaders to step in and salvage the bloc’s faltering trade negotiations with the U.K. was frustrated when summit talks overran on Thursday night, pushing Brexit to the fringes. The meeting of the EU’s 27 government chiefs in Brussels went through the night as they tussled over tough new climate targets. Leaders, including those crucial to the U.K. talks, like German…

Trump Says Morocco Joining Arab States Building Israeli Ties

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CASABLANCA (Capital Markets in Africa) — President Donald Trump said Morocco and Israel agreed to establish full diplomatic relations and that he was recognizing Morocco’s sovereignty over the disputed region of Western Sahara. The Western Sahara issue was long seen as a sticking point in getting Morocco to join with countries including the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan in recognizing Israel. Taken with the earlier agreements, Thursday’s announcement helps bolster Trump’s efforts to reshape…

Next Profit Threat Faces Nigerian Banks Hanging Onto Clients

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) — It’s not just the pandemic that’s putting Nigerian bank earnings at risk: Competition for customers in the recession-hit economy is driving interest rates on loans lower. Mid-tier lender FCMB Group Plc is forecasting that first-quarter earnings will fall more than 20% as rates decline, pushing the Lagos-based bank to accelerate lending to compensate for the profit squeeze. Guaranty Trust Bank Plc, Nigeria’s biggest bank by market value, reported flat interest income for the…

Jumia Looks Beyond Profit Target With Plan to Spin Off Units

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) — Jumia Technologies AG is looking beyond an immediate target of generating a profit from its pioneering African e-commerce business, laying out longer-term plans to spin off divisions and enter new countries. The question of when the Berlin-based company will become profitable has hung over the group since a high-profile New York listing in 2019. And while Jumia has been careful in recent months not to set itself a deadline,…

Nigeria Needs To Do More to Get $1.5 Billion World Bank Loan

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) — Nigeria needs to compile a solid economic-recovery plan with the right foreign-exchange policies to convince the World Bank to approve a $1.5 billion loan to support the West African nation’s budget. The government has to assure the lender’s shareholders it is doing all it can to prop up Africa’s largest economy amid the devastation brought by the coronavirus pandemic, according to the World Bank country director in Nigeria, Shubham Chaudhuri….

Nigeria Plans to Approve Covid-19 Vaccine Early Next Year

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) — Nigeria expects to license by April one of the vaccines under development globally for Covid-19, the West African nation’s drugs regulator said. “We are looking at the end of the first quarter of next year or the beginning of the second quarter” to approve a shot for use in Nigeria, National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control Director-General Mojisola Adeyeye said in an interview on Wednesday. Africa’s…

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