Author: The Editorial Team

CAIRO (Capital Markets in Africa) — The International Monetary Fund approved $2.77 billion in emergency funding for Egypt as the Arab world’s most populous nation grapples with the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic. The borrowing under the lender’s Rapid Financing Instrument comes after Egypt last month requested it and a stand-by agreement to help cover any current-account gaps. “Egypt achieved a remarkable turnaround prior to the COVID-19 shock, carrying out a successful economic reform program supported…

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) — Anheuser-Busch InBev NV received the go-ahead from the South African government to transport drinks from manufacturing plants to depots, avoiding the need to dump millions of liters of beer and saving the government 500 million rand ($27 million) in lost taxes. South Africa has banned the sale and movement of alcoholic drinks as part of measures to contain the coronavirus, and the restriction was kept in place even after…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) — When African ministers held a video conference call to discuss debt relief last week, the same concern kept cropping up: how to cut the payments without jeopardizing future access to markets. One African Finance Minister, who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of negotiations, said creditors may victimize his country if he is too vocal about a waiver in public. Benin’s Finance Minister Romuald Wadagni has argued the…

NAIROBI (Capital Markets in Africa) — Halfway through Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta’s second term his pledge of transforming the economy through manufacturing, farming, health care, and low-cost housing has been slow to show results, and the coronavirus pandemic could now reduce that too little more than an election promise. The virus is hitting revenue collection as key drivers such as agriculture, tourism, and diaspora remittances decline, and debt costs rise for East Africa’s biggest economy….