The Editorial Team |

Zimbabwe orders foreign firms to Sell Shares to Black by April 1

Harare, Zimbabwe, Capital Markets in Africa — Zimbabwe will shut down foreign-owned companies on April 1 if they don’t comply with a law that requires them to sell or cede 51 percent of their shares to black Zimbabweans, Indigenization Minister Patrick Zhuwao said. The Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act was passed in 2010 under President Robert Mugabe’s black empowerment drive but implementation has been slow. “Comply by that date or close shop, comply by that date…

Finance | IFC, EIB and Ecobank Partner to Boost SME Finance across Africa

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Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, Capital Markets in Africa — International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, the European Investment Bank (EIB) and Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI), parent company of the Ecobank Group and leading pan-African full-service banking group, today signed a landmark risk-sharing agreement that will help fill the gap in financing for small and medium sized enterprises in some of Sub-Saharan Africa’s poorest and most fragile countries. Under the agreement, EIB,…

Nigeria | Lafarge Africa Plc FY2015Earnings: Weak Numbers with Mixed Outlook

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LAGOS, Nigeria, Capital Markets in Africa — Lafarge Africa Plc (“Lafarge” or “The Group”) released its FY:2015 result last Thursday, 17th March 2016. The result, which is a consolidated account incorporating its new subsidiary – The United Cement Company of Nigeria Ltd (UNICEM) – showed a 2.5% growth in top-line and PBT (from continuing operations) fell 27.5% Y-o-Y to N267.2bn and N29.3bn respectively. Turnover, excluding UNICEM, was up 3.5% Y-o-Y relative to our forecast of…

Morocco central bank cuts benchmark interest rate to 2.25 percent

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CASABLANCA, Morocco, Capital Markets in Africa — The Moroccan central bank cut its benchmark interest rate on Tuesday for the first time since December 2014 in an attempt to stimulate an economy hurt by weak cereal production and non-agriculture activity. The Bank reduced the key rate by 25 basis points to 2.25 percent, Bank Al-Maghrib said in a statement. The central bank also lowered its growth forecast for this year to 1 percent from 3…

Nigeria Surprisingly Raises Benchmark Interest Rate to 12%

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LAGOS, Nigeria, Capital Markets in Africa – Nigeria’s central bank Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) hikes the policy rate by 100 basis points to 12 percent after lowering it from a record 13 percent in November 2015 and kept it in January 2016, Governor Godwin Emefiele informed reporters on Tuesday in Abuja, the capital. The cash-reserve ratio was also increased to 22.5% from 20%, the Governor said. Nigeria’s inflation rate rose to 11.4% in February from a year…

Nigeria | The Inflation Conundrum …

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LAGOS, Nigeria, Capital Markets in Africa — The inflation figure for the month of February was recently released by the National Bureau of Statistics. As much as the increase was largely anticipated, the huge gallop to 11.4% came as a surprise as consensus had capped the rise at 10%YoY. The increase in the headline figure was attributed to faster increases in prices across all major divisions except Restaurant and Hotels division. The Food and Core…

Central Bank of Kenya keeps interest rate at 11.50% in March

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NAIROBI, Kenya, Capital Markets in Africa — The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) met on March 21, 2016 to review market developments and the impact of its previous monetary policy decisions. The MPC decided to retain the Central Bank Rate (CBR) at its current level of 11.5 percent, to continue to anchor inflation expectations and enhance the credibility of its policy stance. The Bank noted that month-on-month overall inflation fell to 6.8 percent in February 2016,…

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