The Editorial Team |

Nigeria Regulator Eases Capital Pressure on Struggling Banks

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Nigeria’s central bank has given the country’s lenders some much-needed relief by extending the time they will have to implement stricter accounting rules for bad loans. Lenders in the West African country now have four years to absorb impairments arising from the implementation of IFRS 9 accounting standards last year, thereby easing fears that an immediate transition would have severe repercussions for banks’ capital adequacy ratios. IFRS 9 requires them to…

Ghana Central Bank Sees Scope for Further Interest-Rate Cuts

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ACCRA (Capital Markets in Africa) – Ghana’s central bank has room for another interest-rate cut as early as next month, according to a member of the Monetary Policy Committee. Following an unexpected reduction in the key rate in January, further loosening in March “could be a possibility” if inflation trends downward, said Philip Abradu-Otoo, who is also the head of research at the Bank of Ghana. The central bank is “fairly confident that inflation will…

Nigerian GDP Growth Picks Up Momentum as Buhari Seeks New Term

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – As Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari seeks re-election this week, economic growth is finally getting back to where it was when he took power four years ago. Gross domestic product in Africa’s largest oil producer expanded 1.9 percent last year, the most since 2015, the Abuja-based National Bureau of Statistics said on its website on Tuesday. The economy grew 2.4 percent in the three months through December from a year earlier, the…

South Africa’s Mminele Says CPI Expectations Off `Near-6% Perch’

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JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) South African inflation expectations have begun to subside and have moved toward the 4.5 percent point the central bank prefers to target, Reserve Bank Deputy Governor Daniel Mminele said. But policy makers remain concerned about the risk of higher administered prices, including from electricity and water tariffs, he said in a speech in Johannesburg. “The SARB’s quarterly projection model shows a continued convergence of inflation expectations, which are already off their near-6…

Nigeria Faces `Lost Decade’ as Economic Growth Stagnates

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Promises by Nigerian presidential candidates to fix an economy that vies with South Africa’s to be the continent’s largest could be unfulfilled unless the country is weaned off its oil dependence. President Muhammadu Buhari, 76, a former military ruler running for a second four-year term in this week’s vote, has struggled to jump-start the economy and far from lifting growth to the annual 10 percent he promised before the previous…

Nigeria Expects $3 Billion in Diaspora Investment Funding

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Nigeria expects $3 billion in investment funding from citizens living mainly in the U.S. to support the agriculture, power, mining and transportation sectors, a senior presidential adviser said. The government will support “a diaspora investment fund,” Abike Dabiri-Erewa, President Muhammadu Buhari’s adviser on diaspora affairs, said in an interview in Abuja, the capital. “They’re planning a $3 billion investment in Nigeria. The fund will be driven by Nigerians in America.”…

South Africa Joblessness Stays Near 15-Year High, Banks Add Jobs

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JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) South Africa’s unemployment rate remained near a 15-year high in the final quarter of 2018, even as the finance industry added more than 100,000 jobs. The unemployment rate fell to 27.1 percent from 27.5 percent in the three months through September, Statistics South Africa said in report released Tuesday in the capital Pretoria. The median estimate of six economists surveyed by Bloomberg was 27.5 percent. South African factory-output growth slowed…

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