The Editorial Team |

Bitcoin Emerges as Crisis Currency in Hotspots Such as Zimbabwe

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – About a third of the customers queuing at La Maison du Bitcoin’s teller windows in Paris aren’t speculating on the value of the cryptocurrency. They’re sending digital money home to Africa. “In many countries in Africa, there are far more cellphones than bank accounts,” said Manuel Valente, co-founder of La Maison. “For bitcoin, all you need is a phone.” Zimbabwe, where the price of bitcoin spiked to double the…

Guaranty Trust Bank Nigeria Eyes Mozambique to Double Income From Africa

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Guaranty Trust Bank, Nigeria’s biggest lender by market value, plans to open in Mozambique as it targets the country’s gas market to help prop up profit from African subsidiaries. The lender will enter Mozambique in the first quarter of 2019 “to capitalize on the country’s offshore gas boom,’’ after it opens in Tanzania in January next year, it said. The expansion will increase the contribution to profit by African…

How Mugabe Lost His Grip on Power in Zimbabwe

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HARARE (Capital Markets in Africa) – Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe’s 37-year monopoly on power has come to an abrupt end. The military seized power and detained Mugabe following a week of confrontation with his government. While the army generals say they aren’t staging a coup or targeting the 93-year-old president, it’s clear they are calling the shots for now in the impoverished southern African nation. 1. What sparked the crisis? It’s all about who will succeed…

Matt Levine’s Money Stuff: Deregulation and Proxy Recounts

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – There have been a lot of stories recently about how the U.S. government has kind of given up on financial regulation. This week the Senate moved to limit strict Fed oversight (and stress tests) to just the dozen biggest banks. Here is a story about how the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has gotten much laxer on a range of mostly consumer-protection-type regulations. (Its interim head “declared that the agency was returning…

This Cryptocurrency Miner Says It Solved Bitcoin’s Power Problem

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – A green-energy startup says it can solve bitcoin’s surging electricity consumption without boosting pollution, an issue threatening to halt the meteoric rise of the virtual currency. Austria’s HydroMiner GmbH raised $2.8 million after closing its first initial coin offering on Wednesday, according to its website. The cash will be used to install high-powered computers at hydropower plants, where the company says it can mine new digital currencies at a cheaper cost and…

Investec First-Half Profit Climbs 21% as Funds Increase

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JOHANNESBURG Capital Markets in Africa) – Investec Plc, which owns a lender and money manager in South Africa and the U.K., said fiscal first-half profit rose 21 percent as funds under management increased, equity markets rose and the banking business increased lending. Net income climbed to 252.4 million pounds ($332 million) in the six months ended Sept. 30 from 208.6 million pounds a year earlier, the London- and Johannesburg-based lender said in a statement on Thursday. The dividend…

Secession Talk Enters Kenyan Mainstream as Poll Feud Simmers

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NAIROBI (Capital Markets in Africa) – Kenya’s protracted election dispute has spawned secession calls from opposition supporters who say their vote has no influence on how East Africa’s biggest economy is governed. The increased agitation follows the declaration of President Uhuru Kenyatta as the winner of October’s election rerun that the main opposition alliance boycotted, alleging it wouldn’t be a fair vote. His victory in the poll, in which turnout was just 38.8 percent and clustered in…

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