Author: The Editorial Team

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) — Efforts to reduce the debt burden of African nations continued this week with private creditors offering a blueprint for contributing and the Paris Club of official lenders signing off on a payment halt for a sixth country. Private investors said they may offer low-income countries cash to offset debt payments due this year, a mechanism that could avoid triggering default. The plan was put forward by the Institute of International Finance,…

LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa) — A quarter of firms using the U.K. government’s furloughing plan can’t afford to take on any of the cost of paying their workers, the Institute of Directors think tank says. Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak has promised to announce details of how he plans to taper the program — which is currently paying 80% of the wages for 8.4 million jobs — this week. The changes are set to allow…

LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa) — An hour into his grilling on a video call with Parliament’s most senior interrogators, Prime Minister Boris Johnson broke into a fit of coughing. It was a brief reminder that he had been through worse times in recent weeks, surviving a severe bout of Covid-19 that had put him in intensive care. Yet the current row over claims that his closest aide flouted the government’s own lockdown orders may still…