Banking

HARARE (Capital Markets in Africa) = RioZim Ltd. halted production at its three gold mines after Zimbabwe’s central bank failed to provide foreign currency the company needs to keep operating. The shutdown is the second by RioZim since October. It’s the latest indication of how businesses are struggling to keep going as a dearth of foreign exchange causes shortages of food and fuel in the southern African nation. RioZim said it suspended output after the central…

NAIROBI (Capital Markets in Africa) – Kenya’s state prosecutor is considering a police recommendation that five of the country’s biggest banks be prosecuted over corruption-related charges. It’s the latest sign that the authorities are intensifying their fight against graft that President Uhuru Kenyatta has called a threat to national security. Kenya ranks among the world’s 40 most-corrupt countries. Kenya’s Director of Criminal Investigations recommended the domestic lenders be charged for “concealing and facilitating, aiding, abetting and benefiting from the…

KAMPALA (Capital Markets in Africa) – Uganda’s central bank retained its benchmark interest rate at 10 percent for a second time, saying risks to the inflation outlook over a 12-month period remain elevated. The Monetary Policy Committee left the rate unchanged even as projected economic growth momentum faces risks “including weather-related constraints to agricultural production and challenges relating to the financing of public investment programs,” Governor Emmanuel Tumusiime-Mutebile told reporters in the capital, Kampala. Key Insights The…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – An ex-Barclays Plc trader in court on allegations that he conspired to rig a key benchmark says his former employer should be the one on trial. During the cross examination of Carlo Palombo, a prosecutor for the U.K. Serious Fraud Office said that Barclays didn’t want its traders making requests for submissions to Euribor that would benefit their own positions.  “They wholly disapproved of this practice in 2019 in a courtroom,”…

ACCRA (Capital Markets in Africa) – A regulatory spring-clean that’s cut the number of Ghanaian banks by almost a third is strengthening the industry, brightening prospects for lending growth and easing the pain of unpaid debts. The expanding economy is also helping lenders put behind them years of challenges weighing on the West African nation — including daily power outages, poor banking regulation and an inflation rate that has averaged 14 percent since 2013. Flush with cash after…

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – Absa Group Ltd. poached a team of bankers from cross-town rival Nedbank Group Ltd. to begin financing aircraft deals in Africa. South Africa’s third-largest bank late last year hired Morne Visagie, who spent 13 years at Nedbank, to head its structured finance and aircraft funding businesses, said David Renwick, head of global finance and trade at Absa’s corporate and investment bank. He brought three other members of his team with him….