The Editorial Team |

Post-Mugabe Zimbabwe Mining Rush Leaves Big Producers Behind

HARARE (Capital Markets in Africa) – While Zimbabwe’s leadership change has sparked a race for the nation’s mineral riches among entrepreneurs and tiny explorers, big-name mining companies are taking a wait-and-see approach. New President Emmerson Mnangagwa has a lot to prove as he seeks to revive the economy and attract mining investment that shrivelled under his predecessor, Robert Mugabe. So far, Mnangagwa has pledged investor-friendly policy changes and partially rolled back a law requiring mining companies to be…

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, Apartheid Activist, Dies Age 81

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JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, whose reputation as a hero of the fight to end white-minority rule in South Africa was tainted by kidnapping and fraud convictions, has died. She was 81. The former wife of Nelson Mandela died in Johannesburg on Monday after a long illness, a family spokesman said in a statement. Her marriage to Mandela in 1958 thrust her onto center stage of South African politics, and she emerged as a…

Credibility of Zimbabwe’s First Post-Mugabe Vote Is at Stake

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HARARE (Capital Markets in Africa) – As Zimbabwe prepares to hold its first election since Robert Mugabe was toppled after almost four decades in power, a key question is whether the government can accomplish something he failed to do: oversee a free vote. Whether the election due before Sept. 1 is regarded as fair may determine the success of efforts by President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who replaced Mugabe as president in November, to attract investment to revive an economy…

Kenya Plans Water Bonds to Plug Funds Gap Leaving Nation Dry

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HARARE (Capital Markets in Africa) – Kenya is turning to the bond market to finance water and sewage projects as it seeks to plug a funding gap that’s left nearly half the population without access to a tap. Utilities are pooling together loans and packaging them as debt for investors as they seek to fix poorly maintained and aging networks that lose about 43 percent of the water pumped in East Africa’s largest economy, according…

Orange Seeking Partnerships Rather Than Acquisitions in Africa

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Orange SA is seeking to build partnerships in Africa rather than making major acquisitions or entering new markets as the French phone carrier focuses on its existing businesses in 21 countries on the continent. Mobile-phone operators in Africa have to increasingly share their investment in infrastructure to reduce costs, Bruno Mettling, Orange’s deputy chief executive officer in charge of operations for Africa and the Middle East, said in an interview…

Zambian Debate on Impeaching President May Not Happen Until June

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HARARE (Capital Markets in Africa) – An opposition party proposal to impeach Zambian President Edgar Lungu may not be debated until June after it wasn’t included in Wednesday’s parliamentary program as expected, and as the legislature closes this week for a two-month recess. The motion brought by Zambia’s main opposition party accuses Lungu of violating the constitution and has been dismissed by the government as frivolous. It has ratcheted up tensions in the southern African nation,…

Spreading Islamic Banking in Uganda, One Sermon at a Time

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KAMPALA (Capital Markets in Africa) – Islamic preacher Imam Idi Kasozi’s Friday sermons in the Ugandan capital typically focus on three subjects: faith, mercy — and religiously compliant banking products. Whether speaking from the pulpit in Kampala or at social functions, the 59-year-old has become Uganda’s most ardent promoter of Islamic banking, a practice the nation is set to follow neighbours Kenya and Tanzania in adopting after years of debate. And though Kasozi perceives a religious obligation, others…

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