The Editorial Team |

Morgan Stanley Keeps Faith in Some of EM’s Worst Currency Losers

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – South Africa’s rand, Turkey’s lira and Brazil’s real may be among the worst-performing emerging-market currencies in the past month, but Morgan Stanley isn’t giving up hope. The lender’s VIRP model, which produces buy and sell signals based on volatility and idiosyncratic risk premia, remains long on those units, as well as Russia’s ruble, even as a rally in developing-nation assets loses steam amid rising geopolitical risks and lingering concerns over a…

Son of Former Liberian Leader Charged in Banknote Scandal

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MONROVIA (Capital Markets in Africa) – Three former senior officials of Liberia’s central bank, including a son of ex-President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, were charged with seven counts of corruption following a probe into the disappearance of about $100 million in cash that was printed abroad. The government has been trying to determine what happened to containers of Liberian dollars that were brought into the small West African nation between 2016 and 2018 under the previous administration,…

London HIV Patient’s Remission Spurs Hope for Curing AIDS

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LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa) – A stem-cell treatment put a London cancer patient’s HIV into remission, marking the second such reported case and reinvigorating efforts to cure the AIDS-causing infection that afflicts some 37 million people globally. The patient has been in remission for 19 months, the International AIDS Society said in a statement. That’s too soon to label the treatment — which used hematopoietic stem cells from a donor with an HIV-resistance gene —…

Triumphant Buhari Can Forget Honeymoon as Nigeria Woes Mount

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Muhammadu Buhari will have little time to celebrate his resounding victory in Nigeria’s presidential election before facing the multitude of problems dogging Africa’s biggest oil producer. The legal challenge to last weekend’s vote promised by his main rival, Atiku Abubakar, is the least of his worries. Add to that a listless economy, Islamist State attacks wreaking havoc in the northeast and an explosive cocktail of worsening poverty and rapid population growth. The 76-year-old former general came to…

How the Cobalt Market Fell Victim to Allure of Electric Cars

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Cobalt prices were surging so much last year that thieves were carrying out elaborate heists at warehouses in Europe’s busiest port. Now, prices are in free fall and mining companies are taking the financial hit. The story of what happened is the classic boom-bust in commodities. In the case of cobalt, it was Elon Musk’s vision of electric cars gaining mass appeal and an ensuing rush of money to…

Angola’s Oil Exports Hit Fresh Lows as Nation’s Fields Age

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LUANDA (Capital Markets in Africa) – Angola will ship the least crude oil in at least 11 years in April, suggesting structural issues afflicting the nation’s production are increasingly hurting its biggest source of export revenue. Exports will drop to 1.31 million barrels a day in April, the smallest outflow since at least March 2008, according to copies of loading programs seen by Bloomberg. Angola, Africa’s second-largest producer, is among members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting…

Review of Liberia’s ‘Missing’ Cash Finds No Banknotes Lost

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MONROVIA (Capital Markets in Africa) – A review into the alleged disappearance of almost $100 million in cash that Liberia’s government said was printed abroad and went missing after arriving at the port found no evidence to support the charge. The government of President George Weah ordered a probe in September into the disappearance of 15.5 billion Liberian dollar ($96 million) in banknotes between 2016 and 2018 and banned some current and former central bank officials from leaving the country while…

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