The Editorial Team |

Guinness Nigeria’s Profit Tumbles During Economic Downturn

LAGOS, Nigeria, Capital Markets in Africa — Guinness Nigeria Plc, the country’s second-biggest brewer, said profit fell 83 percent in the nine months through to the end of March during a downturn in Africa’s largest economy. Earnings after tax were 864 million naira ($4.35 million) in the period, compared with 5.2 billion naira a year earlier, the local unit of Diageo Plc said in a statement on the Nigerian Stock Exchange’s website. Revenue dropped 18 percent to…

Exotix Says Nigeria is `Uninvestable’ Due to Currency Policy

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LAGOS, Nigeria, Capital Markets in Africa — Nigerian foreign-exchange controls are undermining political reforms by President Muhammadu Buhari and making the country “uninvestable” for buyers who measure returns in dollars, Exotix Partners LLP said. The reorganization of the state oil company’s structure, changes to the nation’s bureaucracy and Buhari’s efforts to curb corruption all point to “root and branch” changes to the country’s governance structures, Hasnain Malik, head of frontier markets strategy at London-based Exotix, said in an interview…

OPEC Invite Has Gabon Mulling Best Response to Oil Nightmare

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Libreville, Gabon, Capital Markets in Africa — Gabon is considering a return to OPEC and trying to rally fellow African nations for a more coordinated response to slumping oil prices, President Ali Bongo Ondimba said. Some members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries have asked the West African nation to rejoin the group after 21 years as producers seek to “fight together” to stabilize prices, Bongo said during an hour-long interview at Bloomberg headquarters in New York. Gabon hasn’t…

Nigeria Economics Loses to Politics as Buhari Takes Naira Stand

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LAGOS, Nigeria, Capital Markets in Africa — History is repeating itself in Nigeria, where the more President Muhammadu Buhari is urged to devalue the naira, the more he digs in his heels. Investors are beginning to surmise that politics — rather than economics — will determine the currency’s immediate future. Even as growth slows, inflation rises and investors flee Africa’s biggest oil producer, analysts in a Bloomberg survey are backing away from estimates a devaluation will take place…

Mozambique Central Bank Hikes Policy Rate to Curb Inflation in April

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MAPUTO, Mozambique, Capital Markets in Africa —The Bank of Mozambique has decided to increase key policy interest rates to the highest level in four years , in its efforts to curb inflationary pressure. The Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee, which met in Maputo on 20 April, announced that the Standing Lending Facility (the interest rate paid by the commercial banks to the central bank for money borrowed on the Interbank Money Market) will rise immediately by…

Fast-Moving Consumer Goods: Challenges and Opportunities in Africa

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LAGOS, Nigeria, Capital Markets in Africa — Africa represents a large and growing opportunity for fast-moving consumer goods companies and retailers with the rapid expansion of Africa’s consumer class. At an average 5% growth, African countries’ booming consumer demand outspans the developing world. The average GDP per capita in Africa over the last five years has grown by over 11%. According to a report by McKinsey, GDP per capita is the single most important driver…

Kenyan Equity Valuations Buoyed by Low Oil, Politics — Exotix

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Nairobi, Kenya, Capital Markets in Africa — Kenya equity valuations that declined over the past year are now among the most attractive in sub-Saharan African frontier markets, supported by the lowest political risk in a decade and favorable global conditions, analysts from Exotix Partners LLP said. Lower oil prices, which benefit net crude importers like Kenya, and the prospect that the timing of U.S. interest-rate increases have been pushed out are expected to foster a “relatively benign environment…

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