The Editorial Team |

Nigeria | China’s Africa Push Reaches Currencies in Deal Investors Decry

LAGOS, Nigeria, Capital Markets in Africa: Strategists are criticizing Nigeria’s latest plan to rescue its currency — this time by relying on Chinese cash. On a visit to Beijing last month, President Muhammadu Buhari signed a currency agreement aimed at encouraging trade with China and reducing Nigeria’s demand for dollars to relieve pressure on its dwindling foreign reserves. While the deal, details of which are still being negotiated, helps China’s push into Africa’s largest economy, it will…

Nigerian President Replies to British PM ‘Return the Stolen Funds’

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LAGOS, Nigeria, Capital Markets in Africa: Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari said he isn’t demanding an apology from the U.K. after comments from Prime Minister David Cameron that the country was “fantastically corrupt.” President Buhari was asked if his country was “fantastically corrupt” as Cameron had claimed, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari answered “yes,” and said that he wasn’t demanding an apology for the comments. In addition, he said “What I am demanding is the return of assets” that are the product of corruption…

South Africa | Barclays Unit Rejects South Africa Minister’s Invite to Gupta Talks

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Johannesburg, South Africa, Capital Markets in Africa: Barclays Africa Group Limited’s Absa declined an invitation to meet South African Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane to discuss the closure of bank accounts related to companies controlled by the Gupta family, who are friends of President Jacob Zuma and in business with his son. “We have respectfully declined on account of client confidentiality,” the Johannesburg-based lender said in an e-mailed response to questions on Wednesday. “As a bank we cannot discuss any…

Africa’s growth: Meltdown or slowdown?

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JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, Capital Markets in Africa: Economic growth across the region is likely to remain slower in coming years than it has been over the past 10 to15 years. The International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) baseline projection for 2016 is now down to 3%, from what was a forecasted 6.1% in April 2015(1). The main reasons for a relative slowdown are not unique to Africa and are the same as those weighing down the global…

Nigeria’s Access Bank Latest Lender Targeted in Anti-Graft Drive

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LAGOS, Nigeria, Capital Markets in Africa: Access Bank Plc, a Nigerian lender, said Group Managing Director Herbert Wigwe was taken and questioned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission at its offices about a client bank transaction last week, the third bank to be caught up in an investigation by the nation’s anti-graft agency. Wigwe was released on May 6, the Lagos-based bank with offices in seven other countries, said in a statement posted on the Nigerian…

Finance | Swaziland secures US$63 million AfDB loan to finance smallholder irrigation project

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Mbabane, Swaziland, Capital Markets in Africa: Swaziland has secured a US $63 million (ZAR 2.01 billion) loan to finance the second phase of the Lower Usuthu Smallholder Irrigation Project (LUSIP II) in the south eastern part of the country. The LUSIP II, approved by the African Development Bank Board on Wednesday, May 5, 2016, is a follow-up project to the LUSIP-I which was completed in 2010. The project was a response to the Government’s recognition…

Kenya | Equity Group Pauses Africa Expansion Plans as Economies Slow

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Nairobi, Kenya, Capital Markets in Africa: Equity Group Holdings Ltd., Kenya’s biggest bank by market value, put plans to expand into five other African countries on hold after sliding prices for commodities from oil to copper caused currencies to tumble. The lender, which had prioritized entries into Nigeria, Angola, Ghana, Mozambique and Zambia, will instead focus on deepening its presence in markets in which it already operates by growing branch networks, Chief Executive Officer James Mwangi said. “We…

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