Facebook No Substitute for Vote, Embattled Sudan Leader Says

Facebook No Substitute for Vote, Embattled Sudan Leader Says

SUDAN (Capital Markets in Africa)  – Sudan’s embattled president took aim at activists who’re using social media to organize demonstrations calling for his ouster, saying only elections can bring political change in the protest-wracked African nation. “Changing the government can’t be achieved by using WhatsApp or Facebook, it is only through the ballot box and the Sudanese people are the only body that can determine who is supposed to rule this country,” Omar al-Bashir told a televised…

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South Africa Mines Minister Mantashe Named in Bosasa Scandal

South Africa Mines Minister Mantashe Named in Bosasa Scandal

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – Gwede Mantashe, South Africa’s minister of mineral resources and chairman of the ruling African National Congress, is facing allegations that he took bribes from Bosasa, the services company accused of paying off politicians in order to win state contracts and avoid prosecution. Richard le Roux, a former regional technical coordinator for a unit of Bosasa, on Thursday told a judicial inquiry that’s probing government corruption how the company spent…

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Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission Officials Quit En Masse

Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission Officials Quit En Masse

HARARE (Capital Markets in Africa) – The head of the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission and other officials resigned with immediate effect, the government said. Chairman Job Whabira and the other commissioners will step down on Thursday, Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet Misheck Sibanda said in a statement handed to reporters in the capital, Harare. “All commissioners have gone on leave pending the finalization of their terminal benefits,” Sibanda said, without providing a reason for…

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Kenya’s CBA Gets 53% of NIC in Biggest Bank Deal in Decade

Kenya’s CBA Gets 53% of NIC in Biggest Bank Deal in Decade

NAIROBI (Capital Markets in Africa) – Commercial Bank of Africa Ltd. and NIC Group Plc agreed to combine their operations to create Kenya’s third-largest lender in the biggest banking tie-up in at least a decade. Privately-held CBA will get 53 percent of the merger entity, while NIC Group will hold the balance, NIC’s Chief Executive Officer John Gachora told investors at a briefing in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. The merged bank will have a combined asset base…

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IMF Says Talks With Kenya on Fund-Supported Program Progress

IMF Says Talks With Kenya on Fund-Supported Program Progress

NAIROBI (Capital Markets in Africa) – The International Monetary Fund said there is progress in talkswith Kenya for a new program, months after a standby facility for the East African nation ended. “Significant progress was made during the mission” in December “and discussions on a new fund-supported program are continuing,” said Jan Mikkelsen, the Washington-based lender’s representative in Kenya. “There is no particular timeline.” The previous program, an insurance-type facility that Kenya would draw from in the event…

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Kenyan Bank Sees Decade’s Biggest Merger as African Springboard

Kenyan Bank Sees Decade’s Biggest Merger as African Springboard

NAIROBI (Capital Markets in Africa) – After agreeing to Kenya’s biggest banking merger in at least a decade, Commercial Bank of Africa Ltd. and NIC Group Plc, are ready to take on regional rivals that have outsized them until now. The combined entity will have assets of 415 billion shillings ($4.1 billion) — about double what they each hold individually in the country — catapulting it past Co-operative Bank of Kenya Ltd. as the East African nation’s third-largest…

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Gunvor Is Said to Discuss Possible Sale to Algeria’s Sonatrach

Gunvor Is Said to Discuss Possible Sale to Algeria’s Sonatrach

ALGIER (Capital Markets in Africa) – Gunvor Ltd., the commodity trading house controlled by billionaire Torbjorn Tornqvist, has discussed selling the company to Algeria’s state oil and gas producer, according to people with knowledge of the situation. The idea is preliminary but Sonatrach has started due diligence on acquiring all or part of the company, one of the people said, asking not to be identified discussing private negotiations. A second plan under consideration would see Sonatrach,…

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