The Editorial Team |

Ghana Keeps Key Rate at 4 1/2-Year Low With Inflation in Target

ACCRA (Capital Markets in Africa) – Ghana’s central bank kept its benchmark interest rate at a 4 1/2-year low for a third consecutive meeting as the currency stabilized and inflation remain within its target band. The Bank of Ghana maintained the rate at 17 percent, Governor Ernest Addison told reporters Monday in the capital, Accra. All eight economists surveyed by Bloomberg forecast the hold. Key Insights: Underlying inflation pressures are easing, Addison said. The recent oil…

FirstRand’s FNB Targets South Africa Townships With Fintech Deal

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JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – FirstRand Ltd.’s First National Bank and a startup financial-technology company in South Africa are partnering to connect informal traders in townships with fast-moving consumer-goods companies. FNB is seeking to tap into a market that it estimates could consist of as many as 1 million enterprises that have largely been ignored and falls into the “unseen economy,” the Johannesburg-based lender said in an emailed statement. Townships were created during apartheid on the…

South Africa Probes Illegal Miners Blast Risk Under City of Gold

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JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – South Africa is probing a potential catastrophe lurking beneath its richest city — illegal gold miners are digging and blasting 30 centimeters (12 inches) from gas pipelines beneath some of Johannesburg’s most vital infrastructure, raising the risk of explosions. The government has been jolted into action after the Sunday Times newspaper reported on the activity that could create an inferno. Some of the illegal miners are digging right below…

An Oil-Rich State Seeks Hope in Ashes of Africa’s Worst War

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Torched homes, gutted shopfronts and fields of rotting corn greeted Laker Betty as she returned to the town in South Sudan’s breadbasket she fled in terror a year ago. She’s one of thousands of civilians tentatively returning to the East African nation after a war that at its height rivaled Syria for the dubious title of the world’s worst conflict, claiming almost 400,000 lives. As President Salva Kiirprepares to welcome rebels…

Blood Gold’ Crackdown May Imperil Small Miners It Seeks to Help

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – New rules designed to prioritize safety for many of the world’s most vulnerable gold miners may in fact put their livelihoods at risk. When his fellow miners winch him up from the hole in the desert, Keith Gushure is covered in mud. Gushure, 21, holds a pick and a hammer. For the past 18 hours he’s been trying to chip, gouge and pry gold out of the 56-foot (17-meter)…

Guinea Bauxite Miner to Build Rail, Refinery in $3 Billion Deal

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GUINEA (Capital Markets in Africa) – Societe Miniere de Boke, which mines aluminum raw material bauxite in Guinea, signed agreements with the West African nation to spend $3 billion on a railway, an alumina refinery and the development of new mining areas. The 135-kilometer (84-mile) railway, which will link mining operations to a river terminal, will cost an estimated $1.2 billion and is expected to start operations in 2022, the group said in a statement…

Battered Bitcoin Miners Seen Shutting Down as Losses Pile Up

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Bitcoin miners hit hard by the cryptocurrency’s crash may be throwing in the towel. The Bitcoin network’s hash rate, one way of gauging the computing power dedicated to mining the digital currency, dropped about 24 percent from an all-time high at the end of August through Nov. 24, according to Blockchain.com. While the decline may have partially resulted from miners switching to other cryptocurrencies, JPMorgan Chase & Co. says some in…

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