Author: The Editorial Team

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) A two-decade fight over whether Royal Dutch Shell Plccontributed to the execution of nine Nigerian oil-industry critics has landed at the company’s doorstep. A court in The Hague, Netherlands heard its first arguments on Tuesday, as part of determining if Shell played any role when the military dictatorship ruling Nigeria convicted nine men, including well-known activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, of murder and then executed them in 1995. The escalation of the court battle…

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – Two new coal-fired power plants being built in South Africa, which will be the continent’s largest once completed, are “badly designed and badly constructed,” Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan said as the country reels under a third day of rolling blackouts. State-owned power utility Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. “encapsulates the challenge of where developmental state institutions can go wrong,” Gordhan told lawmakers in Cape Town Tuesday. The utility cut…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – President Donald Trump is eyeing a path to avoid another government shutdown where he would reluctantly accept the congressional border-security deal and attempt to tap other funds for his wall. Trump is likely to grudgingly sign the legislation and then immediately use his executive authority to fund additional border measures, said a person who talked to the president Tuesday and asked not to be identified to discuss private conversations. Late Tuesday,…

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – South Africa grappled with traffic gridlock and shuttered businesses after the struggling state power utility cut supply for a third day to prevent a total collapse of the grid. The return to blackouts compounds worries about Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd.’s precarious position and the threat it poses to the economy. It’s also an embarrassment for the ruling African National Congress just three months ahead of national elections. The rand tumbled Monday and…