Banking

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) — A South African regulator warned insurers to stop broadly rejecting claims from businesses seeking to cover losses because of a lockdown to curb the coronavirus. “The Financial Sector Conduct Authority is concerned about the behavior of some insurers who are deliberately avoiding paying business-interruption claims were no grounds exist to do so,” the Pretoria-based regulator said in an emailed statement. “The national lockdown cannot be used by any insurer…

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) — South African government debt could rise by 40 percentage points over the next three years as strong, widespread fiscal pressures and persistently low economic growth weigh on the nation’s credit profile, according to Moody’s Investors Service. That would push government debt as a percentage of the gross domestic product well over 100% and much higher than the 87.4% peak the Treasury projects for 2023-24 under its active management scenario….

ACCRA (Capital Markets in Africa) — The World Bank will provide Ghana with a $250 million credit facility to start its own development bank. The Washington-based lender is finalizing the terms of the funding with the country’s Ministry of Finance, the World Bank’s office in the nation’s capital, Accra, said in an email on Monday. The World Bank’s board may consider the facility before September, it said. Ghana’s government said in October that it plans to raise…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) — The campaign to lead the World Trade Organization during the most turbulent period of its 25-year existence has officially begun. Playing out against the backdrop of a pandemic, a worldwide recession, the U.S.-China battle for trade supremacy, and the American presidential election, there couldn’t be more at stake. But Brazilian Director-General Roberto Azevedo’s decision to step down at the end of August, a year before his term ends, also…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) — Nigeria will continue to pursue exchange rate convergence around what is offered in the investors and exporters window, otherwise called nafex, the regulator said. “Exchange rate unification is moving toward the nafex,” central bank governor, Godwin Emefiele said on a call with investors on Tuesday. People buying dollars from the parallel market are engaged in ‘illegal business’ and ‘corrupt practices’ and the bank will not use the unofficial market as base…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) — Olam International Ltd., one of the world’s largest food traders, will increase its rice-processing capacity in Nigeria by half as it moves to benefit from the country’s increasing investment in the food crop. The company plans to build a second line at its factory in the northern Nigerian state of Nassarawa to provide an additional 120,000 tons of million capacity per annum by 2021, Ade Adefeko, vice president, corporate…

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) — The South African Reserve Bank will resist calls to finance the government’s growing budget deficit with aggressive quantitative easing because that could add even more strain on the National Treasury, Governor Lesetja Kganyago said. If the central bank were to buy 500 billion rand ($29 billion) of government bonds and then mop up the excess liquidity by issuing bonds at the current repurchase rate of 3.75%, it would be…