Ghana Is Said to Triple Minimum Capital Requirements for Banks

Ghana Is Said to Triple Minimum Capital Requirements for Banks

ACCRA (Capital Markets in Africa) – The Bank of Ghana more than trebled minimum capital requirements for lenders as part of reforms aimed at strengthening the industry, according to people familiar with the matter. Banks will need to set aside at least 400 million cedis ($91 million) in capital compared with 120 million cedis previously to meet their license obligations, the people said, asking not to be identified because an official announcement hasn’t yet been made. Lenders…

Read More

Kenya Opposition Sets Conditions for Taking Part in New Vote

Kenya Opposition Sets Conditions for Taking Part in New Vote

NAIROBI  (Capital Markets in Africa) – Kenya’s main opposition alliance demanded the electoral commission be overhauled and said it wants guarantees on fairness in place before it agrees to participate in a rerun of last month’s annulled presidential election. The five-party National Super Alliance urged the Independent Electoral & Boundaries Commission to remove six key officials from its secretariat, including Chief Executive Officer Ezra Chiloba, before the vote is held on Oct. 17, alliance leader Raila Odinga said…

Read More

Zuma Faces Fresh Attacks From South African Opposition Parties

Zuma Faces Fresh Attacks From South African Opposition Parties

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – South African opposition parties resumed their offensive against President Jacob Zuma after failing to remove him through a motion of no confidence in parliament, urging the nation’s top court to force the legislature to discipline him for failing to uphold the constitution. The Constitutional Court on Tuesday began hearing a lawsuit brought by the main opposition parties to order the parliamentary speaker to convene a committee to investigate whether Zuma’s refusal…

Read More

Traders Lured by High-Yield `Sweet Spot’ in Emerging Markets

Traders Lured by High-Yield `Sweet Spot’ in Emerging Markets

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Traders are gaining confidence in nations that pay the steepest local interest rates. Investor anxiety, as measured by one-month implied currency volatility, dropped to multi-month lows last month in Russia, South Africa and Brazil — countries with some of the most generous yields on their local government debt. Those nations are benefiting from demand for their bonds as interest rates in the developed world stay suppressed amid a pickup…

Read More

Largest Africa Economies Need More Growth to Cut Joblessness

Largest Africa Economies Need More Growth to Cut Joblessness

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – A surge in agriculture has helped lift Africa’s biggest economies out of their slumps, but the recovery may be weak. Gross domestic product in Nigeria, the continent’s largest crude producer, advanced for the first time in six quarters in the three months ended June from a year earlier, growing 0.55 percent, the statistics agency said. In South Africa, GDP expanded 2.5 percent from the previous quarter, ending the second recession in almost…

Read More

Nigeria’s Economy Expands to End the Worst Slump in 25 Years

Nigeria’s Economy Expands to End the Worst Slump in 25 Years

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Nigeria’s economy expanded in the second quarter, ending its worst slump in 25 years as agricultural and oil output increased. Gross domestic product of Africa’s largest crude producer grew 0.55 percent in the three months through June from a year earlier compared with a revised 0.9 percent contraction in the first quarter, the Abuja-based National Bureau of Statistics said in an emailed report Tuesday. The median of 10 economists’…

Read More

South Africa Exits Recession in Second Quarter as GDP Rises 2.5%

South Africa Exits Recession in Second Quarter as GDP Rises 2.5%

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – South Africa’s economy exited its second recession in almost a decade in the three months ended June 30 after agricultural output surged. Gross domestic product increased an annualized 2.5 percent in the second quarter compared with a revised decline of 0.6 percent in the previous three months, the statistics office said in a report released on Tuesday in the capital, Pretoria. The median of 21 estimates compiled by Bloomberg was for growth…

Read More
1 647 648 649 650 651 1,073