The Editorial Team |

South Africa Current-Account Gap Widens as Customs Payouts Rise

JOHANNNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – South Africa’s current-account deficit widened in the second quarter as the amount paid to the nation’s customs union partners increased. The shortfall on the current account, the broadest measure of trade in goods and services, increased to 2.4 percent of gross domestic product in the three months through June from a revised 2 percent in the previous quarter, the Reserve Bank said in its Quarterly Bulletin released on Thursday in the…

Interswitch Nigeria Sees Delayed IPO Concluded by End-2019

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Interswitch Ltd., a Nigeria-based payments-processing company, expects to complete its delayed dual listing in London and Lagos before the end of 2019. The initial public offering to raise as much as $1 billion had been scheduled for 2016 and was delayed because equity markets were not as “favorable as we would have liked,” Interswitch’s divisional chief executive officer for switching and processing, Akeem Lawal, said in an interview. “We will…

Bitcoin’s Power Needs Are Unbelievable and Uneconomic: Macro Man

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Are you a cranky skeptic of crypto-currencies and tired of adherents promising that Bitcoin can do everything from protecting your privacy to curing the common cold? Are you dubious that it’s as scalable as its prophets claim? Perhaps in this case, the Luddites are correct. A look at the resources required to power the blockchain suggests that crypto-currencies — at least in the guise of Bitcoin — can only…

Bitcoin’s Power Needs Are Unbelievable and Uneconomic: Macro Man

Posted on by The Editorial Team

Cameroon Seeks to Improve Cocoa Bean Quality After Declines

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YAOUNDE (Capital Markets in Africa) – Cameroon is taking steps to encourage farmers to grow better quality cocoa after a deterioration in last year’s crop resulted in lower prices for the country’s beans. About 90 percent of Cameroon’s cocoa exports in the season through July were classed as Grade 2, the second of three quality ratings for beans, according to Trade Minister Luc Magloire Atangana Mbarga. That compared with 97 percent previously and meant that Cameroonian…

Old Mutual Wealth to Absorb Some MiFID-Related Costs

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JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – Old Mutual Wealth, a unit of Old Mutual Plc, said it will absorb some additional expenses when Europe’s MiFID II takes effect next year, though it hasn’t yet announced whether it will pass onto its clients the cost of external research for funds. “Absorbing costs is something we have to do and we already are,” Paul Feeney, chief executive officer of Old Mutual Wealth, said in an interview in Johannesburg on…

Mauritius Attorney General Quits Over Money-Laundering

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PORT LOUIS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Mauritian Attorney General Ravi Yerrigadoo stepped down to allow an investigation into allegations of money laundering, Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth said. Yerrigadoo quit at Jugnauth’s request to “ensure the investigation is conducted in a transparent manner,” the premier told reporters Wednesday in the capital, Port Louis. Le Defi, a Port Louis-based newspaper, reported that an affidavit was submitted to Mauritius’s Supreme Court on Tuesday alleging that Yerrigadoo helped set…

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