Banking | - Part 91

Nigerian Banks Seen Benefiting as Dollars Start to Flow

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – An increase in dollar sales by Nigeria’s central bank is giving the country’s lenders reason to cheer. “We see an improvement in the number of letters of credit, bills being settled and remittances being allowed,’’ Segun Ajibola, president of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria, said in an interview in Lagos, the nation’s commercial hub, on April 21. “Ordinarily, a margin will always be left behind for banks,…

Ecobank Tumbles With Shareholder Nedbank After Record Loss

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Pan-African lender Ecobank Transnational Inc. said it made a record pretax loss of $131 million last year, pushing its shares down along with those of Nedbank Group Ltd., its biggest stockholder. Ecobank fell 5 percent to 7.79 naira in Lagos, the lowest since 2009. Nedbank, South Africa’s fourth-largest lender by assets and owner of about one-fifth of Ecobank shares, declined 4.8 percent to 221.45 rand, the most among its local banking peers….

Tunisia central bank to steadily weaken dinar, finance minister says

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TUNIS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Tunisia’s central bank will reduce its interventions so the value of the dinar steadily declines, but it will prevent a dramatic slide in the currency, the finance minister said on Tuesday. The strategy is part of Tunisia’s talks on reforms with the International Monetary Fund. The IMF is pushing Tunisia to overhaul its finances and reduce public spending, especially public-sector wages, where spending is among the highest in the…

Central Banks in Africa Keep Rates Amidst Fed Rate Hike in March

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Tanzania’s central bank cut its discount rate to 12percent from 16 percent on Monday 6th March 2017, to help spur lending and boost economic growth, the first time it has lowered borrowing costs since 2013. The cut, which the central bank said in a circular to commercial banks becomes effective on Monday, follows a steep drop in private sector credit growth last year. “The discount rate which is applicable…

South African Banks Fall on S&P Downgrade, Rand Weakness but Resilience

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JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – South Africa’s banking sector fell by nearly three percent on Thursday after S&P cut the credit ratings of several major financial institutions following a sovereign downgrade. S&P cut South Africa’s credit level to junk status on Monday, citing growing concerns of political and policy instability following President Jacob Zuma’s midnight cabinet reshuffle a week ago. A weak rand following the downgrade compounded the impact on banking shares on Thursday,…

Ghana names monetary policy expert Addison as central bank governor

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ACCRA (Capital Markets in Africa) – Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo named senior monetary policy expert Ernest Addison as central bank governor on Thursday, a day after his predecessor resigned for personal reasons, a statement from the presidency said. Addison, who in the early 2000s was a leading architect of Ghana’s monetary policy, worked as a lead economist at the African Development Bank. The announcement comes as Akufo-Addo’s young government seeks to stabilize national finances and…

South Africa Central Bank Signals End of Rate-Increase Cycle

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JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – The South African Reserve Bank held its benchmark rate unchanged for a sixth straight meeting and said it may have reached the end of its policy-tightening cycle, even as the rand remains a risk to inflation. Five of the six Monetary Policy Committee members voted to keep the repurchase rate at 7 percent, and one favoured a 25 basis-point cut, Governor Lesetja Kganyago told reporters Thursday in the capital, Pretoria. The decision…

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