The Editorial Team |

Johannesburg Stock Gains May Prove a Red Herring Amid Eskom Woes

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – South African stocks are heading for the best weekly rally since Jan. 11, but don’t be fooled by the apparent momentum. The path of least resistance leads down. The benchmark FTSE/JSE Africa All Share Index has added 2.1 percent in the past five days, with its 50-day moving average looking to cross above the 100-day mean. That’s made equities look resilient even as a crisis at the state-owned power utility Eskom fuels…

Tharcherist Revival Or Stagist Clean-up For Nigeria?

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Nigerians will choose a new leader in elections on Feb. 16. The economic policy divide between the candidates is the widest in the country’s 59-year history. Opposition candidate Atiku Abubakar pledges a Thatcherist liberalization of the economy, which he says will ‘make Nigeria work again’ after the 2016 recession. Incumbent Muhammadu Buhari is sticking to his policy of state interventionism. He wants to reduce Nigeria’s dependency on oil exports,…

Nigeria’s Recovery From Recession Is Complete, Says Buhari

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Nigeria’s economy has fully recovered from a recession in 2016, President Muhammadu Buhari said in a nationally televised speech before Saturday’s general elections in which he is seeking a second four-year term. “The recovery of the economy from recession is complete and Nigeria is back on the path of steady growth,” Buhari, 76, said. Gross domestic product in Africa’s largest oil producer and most populous nation expanded 1.9 percent last year,…

RBS Makes Special Investor Payout as Brexit Starts to Bite

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc plans to award shareholders a special dividend as the British lender seeks to assuage concerns with the U.K.’s departure from the European Union looming. The bank, which required one of the costliest bailouts in financial history, swung to a better-than-expected profit before tax of 572 million pounds ($733 million) in the fourth quarter. Despite the planned payout, RBS remains one of the strongest capitalized…

Nigerian Annual Inflation Decelerates Ahead of Election

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Nigerian inflation decelerated in January ahead of the nation’s Feb. 16 general election. The annual inflation rate in Africa’s largest oil producer dropped to 11.37 percent, from 11.44 percent in December, the Abuja-based National Bureau of Statistics said in a report on its website Friday. Prices rose 0.7 percent in the month. Key Insights: Annual growth in food prices slowed to 13.5 percent from 13.6 percent in December. Spending…

Islamic State Wreaks Havoc as Turbulent Nigeria Nears Vote

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Amina Sanusi was getting ready for morning prayers at her home in northeastern Nigeria when she heard gunshots and explosions. She scrambled into nearby bushes with her two children, but lost contact with her husband. Government soldiers in the fishing town of Baga on the shores of Lake Chad fled too, overwhelmed by the firepower of Islamist militants. Like thousands of others since an upsurge in attacks that started…

Why So Much Is at Stake in Nigeria’s Elections: QuickTake

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Almost every Nigerian vote since independence in 1960 has been dogged by varying degrees of conflict and allegations of rigging. That’s one reason why the 2015 election that saw Muhammadu Buhari, now 76, become the first candidate in the nation’s history to topple a sitting president through the ballot box was such a watershed moment. But the former military ruler has presided over four years of lackluster growth and fallen short on…

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