The Editorial Team |

The Edge of Reality: The African Continental Free Trade Area

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – In March 2018, member countries of the African Union took a significant step to boost regional trade and economic integration by establishing the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). As of 29 April 2019, 22 countries have deposited their instruments of ratification of the AfCFTA agreement with the African Union, meeting the threshold for the agreement to come into effect. Accordingly, the AfCFTA came into force on 30 May…

Trade Finance in Africa: Challenges, Opportunities And The Role of Risk In Reducing The Financing Gap

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Trade finance in Africa offers a mixture of intertwined challenges and opportunities. Take for instance the continent’s contribution to global GDP and trade, which stands at just 3 percent in contrast to its population, which accounts for 17 percent of the world’s total. Numerous factors contribute to this mismatch including, in the financing space, a lack of transparency, lack of access to adequate trade financing facilities, lack robust financial…

Prospects for Regional Economic Integration in Africa

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Africa has over the years, especially since the 1960s, established continental and regional integration bodies and frameworks, that have provided auspices for political and economic milestones. For instance, political decolonisation was achieved in 1994 under the Organisation for African Unity, the African Union was put in place in 2002 and a continental peace and security architecture established 2003, eight regional economic communities were formally recognised in 2006, the COMESA-EAC-SADC…

The Mining Industry’s Generation of Something New

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – A few years after this century’s commodity boom, which was primarily driven by China’s resource-intensive manufacturing and infrastructure sectors, many segments within the global mining industry are facing challenges that have caused severe price declines, increased volatility and lowered utilization levels. To add to this, the current value-chain is being challenged by macroeconomic conditions and increasingly pervasive new technology. As a matter of fact, the digital transformation of mining…

Fintech Platforms Within a Trade Finance Context

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Much has been said about the upcoming “fintech disruption”. About 4 years ago, emerging technology companies identified as “fintechs” were mostly finger-pointed as attempting to create the next wave of competition against established financial institutions (FI’s). At that time, most bankers viewed fintechs as new entrants trying to enter the financial services industry using advanced technologies and innovative business models. Fintechs were perceived as attempting to grab market share…

New import-restrictive measures hit $336bn of trade merchandise

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – The World Trade Organization indicated that WTO members have put in place 20 new trade-restrictive measures between mid-October 2018 and mid-May 2019, compared to 40 measures between mid-May 2018 and mid-October 2018. Trade restrictive measures consisted of 16 import-related restrictions and four export-related measures. The WTO members introduced an average of three trade-restrictive measures per month during the covered period, down from eight measures per month between mid-May 2018…

Eskom’s Good News — World Bank Sees South Africa Saving It

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JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – The risk of South Africa’s struggling state power utility going bust doesn’t appear to faze one of its biggest creditors: the World Bank. The Washington-based lender agreed to lend Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. $4 billion almost a decade ago to boost its generation capacity and avoid a repetition of rolling blackouts. Mismanagement and construction cost overruns have seen the state of the utility’s finances going from bad to worse since then,…

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