The Editorial Team

SoftBank, Chan Zuckerberg Help Kenyan Startup Apollo Raise Funds

NAIROBI (Capital Markets in Africa) – SoftBank Vision Fund 2 led a $40 million funding round for Apollo Agriculture, a Kenyan-based technology firm seeking to expand its business of helping farmers access market and financial services. The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Yara Growth Ventures and Endeavor Catalyst are among other investors who participated in the round. Apollo is pushing to increase the number of clients on its platform and “invest in the products that take a…

Poorest Nations to Repay China $14 Billion in 2022, Report Says

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – The world’s poorest nations will pay China and its lenders almost $14 billion this year in debt servicing costs, according to new research that urges Beijing to do more to support restructuring for those who need it.In total, 68 such countries will pay $52.8 billion this year in debt costs, according to a report by the Green Finance & Development Center at Fudan University in Shanghai. More than a quarter of that will…

Nigeria Keeps Rate at 11.5% on Need to Underpin Economic Growth

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Nigeria’s central bank left its benchmark interest rate unchanged as it seeks to boost growth in an economy battling with gasoline shortages and power failures amid rising imported inflation. Six members of the monetary policy committee who attended the one-day meeting voted to keep the rate at 11.5%, Governor Godwin Emefiele said Monday in a virtual briefing from the capital, Abuja. This matched economists forecasts of a hold in…

Ghana Raises Key Interest Rate More Than Expected to 17%

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ACCRA (Capital Markets in Africa) – The Bank of Ghana increased its benchmark interest rate for the second time since November, raising it to a three-year high of 17%, saying already high inflation was being worsened by the Russia-Ukraine war.The monetary policy committee lifted the rate by 250 basis points, Governor Ernest Addison told reporters in Accra Monday. That exceeded the median estimate of seven economists in a Bloomberg survey, which expected an increase of 100 basis…

Powell Says Fed Is Ready to Raise Rates Faster If Needed

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NEW YORK (Capital Markets in Africa) – Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the central bank will take the “necessary steps” to get inflation down even if that means increasing interest rates more rapidly than currently anticipated and eventually to levels that slow the broader economy. Policy makers raised the benchmark lending rate by a quarter point at their meeting last week, the first increase since December 2018, and signaled six more hikes of that…

Africa can adopt renewable energy on a massive scale and save billions along the way – Kenneth Engblom Vice President, Wartsila Energy, Europe and Africa

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Africa’s energy future at a crossroad When it comes to building the future of energy in Africa, the decisions facing the continent’s leaders today are nothing less than of historical importance. More than anything else, energy systems are the very fabric of business and society. Countries across Africa want to make good on their objective of building huge amounts of new generation capacity to anticipate on vast increases in energy demand and set the continent…

Three shifts shaping the Private Equity landscape

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JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – Interpreting the changes that take place in private equity (PE) prices over time isn’t straightforward as many of the drivers are unobservable. But there are some noticeable shifts in the marketplace that prove how PE is performing, says Heleen Goussard, head of Alternative Investment Services at global investment firm RisCura. Their latest Bright Africa Private Equity research focuses on the PE ecosystem in 2021 including a look at fundraising, dry powder,…

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