The Editorial Team |

South Africa Says It’s Got a Plan to Restore Power Stability

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – South Africa’s state-owned power company has a plan to restore reliability of supply over the short to medium term and will aim to avoid any more scheduled blackouts, according to the minister responsible. The objective for Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. remains predictable power supply, Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan told reporters on Wednesday. If rotating power cuts become necessary, the utility will aim to ensure that a maximum of 1,000 megawatts…

Zimbabwean Lenders Ask Central Bank to Lift Interest-Rate Cap

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HARARE (Capital Markets in Africa) – Zimbabwe’s lenders, which include units of Standard Bank Group Ltd. and Ecobank Ltd., appealed to the central bank to raise interest rates that have been capped at 12 percent for the past two years, saying this would increase lending in the collapsing economy. They also proposed that the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe introduce an overnight rate to facilitate lending between financial institutions and the central bank, Bankers Association of Zimbabwe submissions seen by Bloomberg…

Why Change at the Top Might Not Be Enough in Algeria: QuickTake

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ALGEIRS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Bowing to almost two months of mass protests, Algeria’s ailing, octogenarian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika resigned. The announcement may not be enough to quell the unrest that’s being watched closely in Europe and elsewhere and that’s invoked comparisons to the Arab Spring of 2011. Algeria is not only one of Africa’s largest energy producers but has been a bulwark against Islamist militancy and undocumented migration from other parts of the…

Ousted by Protests, Bouteflika Was Once Algeria’s Savior

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ALGEIRS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who led Algeria out of civil war to become its longest-serving president, has resigned after throngs of protesters and even his military allies told the ailing president he’d overstayed his welcome. Though Bouteflika has rarely been seen in public since suffering a stroke in 2013, his political demise will deepen uncertainty in the North African OPECmember. His resignation late on Tuesday might not be enough to assuage demonstrators whose demands have expanded…

Singapore’s Biggest Online Mall Fights Alibaba With Blockchain

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LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa) – In the last decade, Ku Young Bae—a serial entrepreneur and South Korean transplant—has built Singapore’s biggest e-commerce company and fended off giant rivals like Alibaba, Amazon and Tencent. Now he’s keen to expand beyond his home base into Southeast Asia. To do that, and to compete with his cash-rich rivals, he’s hatched an audacious plan to unleash the efficiencies of blockchain technology on e-commerce. In January, his Qoo10 (pronounced “Q-ten”) online mall started a separate…

Bitcoin Price Action Suggests This Is No Crypto-Glitch

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LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa) – The weirdest thing that’s happened in markets this week is the fact that we’re talking about Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies again after a sudden surge in prices late on Monday night. So is this the beginning of a new Bitcoin spring or just a blip? Obviously I have no idea, but there are two things that jump out when looking at the market action. Literally every coin basically climbed at the…

Bitcoin Is Surging Again. Just Ignore It: Leonid Bershidsky

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LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa) – The latest spike to $5,000 is just another blip as cryptocurrencies stumble toward maturity. Bitcoin spiked briefly above $5,000 on Tuesday, a level it hasn’t reached since it crashed spectacularly in November. The surge pulled up other cryptocurrencies, too. But have no fear of missing out: Whatever the explanation, there’s no good reason to turn bullish on crypto. If you go to crypto websites or follow the market’s opinion leaders on Twitter, it’s…

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