The Editorial Team |

South Africa rand hits near 19-mth high as Fed signals gradual tightening

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – South Africa’s rand hovered near a 19-month high against the dollar early on Thursday after the U.S. Federal Reserve raised interest rates on Wednesday, but signalled a gradual pace of rate hikes for the rest of the year. At 0646 GMT, the rand traded at 12.8125 per dollar, flat from its New York close on Thursday, after rallying to 12.77 late on Wednesday in the wake of the Fed’s…

Military wins in first Trump budget; environment, aid lose big

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WASHINGTON (Capital Markets in Africa) – President Donald Trump will ask the U.S. Congress for dramatic cuts to many federal programs as he seeks to bulk up defence spending, start building a wall on the border with Mexico and spend more money deporting illegal immigrants. In a federal budget proposal with many losers, the Environmental Protection Agency and State Department stand out as targets for the biggest spending reductions. Funding would disappear altogether for 19…

Africa’s Ecobank targets strong customer growth from mobile banking

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Africa’s Ecobank expects its new digital banking platform to help to boost its customer base across the continent to 100 million from 13 million by 2020, it said after announcing that it had signed up 1.5 million personal accounts through the mobile app. Ecobank has operations in nearly 40 African nations, some of which have been pressured by the commodity price slide and unfavourable currency swings that have prompted the…

GT Bank to reduce loan growth to focus on bond investment

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Nigeria’s Guaranty Trust Bank (GT Bank) plans to reduce loan growth this year to focus on the increased profit to be had from maintaining domestic bond investment levels, its chief executive said on Wednesday. Nigeria’s government aims to fund half of this year’s forecast budget deficit of 2.36 trillion naira ($7.73 billion)through the domestic debt market and has been selling bonds at yields of about 16 percent. GT Bank’s loan…

Africa’s Largest Data-Center Firm Raises $91 Million for Growth

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JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – Teraco Data Environments, which says it is the largest provider of data-center services in Africa, said it raised 1.2 billion rand ($90 million) from South African lender Barclays Africa Group Ltd. to invest in information-technology infrastructure on the continent. The closely held business will use some of the cash to complete the construction of a new data center in eastern Johannesburg by the end of year, according to a statement e-mailed…

Mota-Engil, CMEC of China Win $2.3 Billion Mozambique Project

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MAPUTO (Capital Markets in Africa) – Thai Mocambique Logistics SA, which is developing a $2.3 billion railway and port to export coal from central Mozambique, awarded the construction contract to Mota-Engil SGPS SA and China National Complete Engineering Corp. An agreement is expected to be signed next month, TML Chief Executive Officer Jose Pires da Fonseca said in an interview Tuesday in the Mozambican capital, Maputo. The total cost of the project, which will include a deep-water harbor…

Lending cap, drought hurting Kenya’s banks: Equity Group CEO

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NAIROBI (Capital Markets in Africa) – Kenyan lenders are facing severe turbulence, grappling with a government cap on commercial lending rates, and the impact of a drought, Equity Group Chief Executive James Mwangi said on Wednesday. Equity, one of the country’s biggest by customers, saw its pretax profit edge up 3.75 percent last year to 24.9 billion shillings ($242.22 million), as it boosted provisions for bad debts. Mwangi said the cap on rates, at 4…

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