Banking | - Part 93

Zimbabwe prints $102 million in bond notes, half its limit

HARARE (Capital Markets in Africa) – Zimbabwe’s central bank has printed half of the ‘bond notes’ quasi-currency it intends to issue under a $200 million scheme, a state newspaper reported on Friday, as the country grapples with a biting shortage of U.S. dollars. The notes are intended to be pegged to the U.S. currency but fears have been raised that the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) would print more than planned, undermining their value. Long…

Africa’s Ecobank targets strong customer growth from mobile banking

Posted on by The Editorial Team

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Africa’s Ecobank expects its new digital banking platform to help to boost its customer base across the continent to 100 million from 13 million by 2020, it said after announcing that it had signed up 1.5 million personal accounts through the mobile app. Ecobank has operations in nearly 40 African nations, some of which have been pressured by the commodity price slide and unfavourable currency swings that have prompted the…

GT Bank to reduce loan growth to focus on bond investment

Posted on by The Editorial Team

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Nigeria’s Guaranty Trust Bank (GT Bank) plans to reduce loan growth this year to focus on the increased profit to be had from maintaining domestic bond investment levels, its chief executive said on Wednesday. Nigeria’s government aims to fund half of this year’s forecast budget deficit of 2.36 trillion naira ($7.73 billion)through the domestic debt market and has been selling bonds at yields of about 16 percent. GT Bank’s loan…

Lending cap, drought hurting Kenya’s banks: Equity Group CEO

Posted on by The Editorial Team

NAIROBI (Capital Markets in Africa) – Kenyan lenders are facing severe turbulence, grappling with a government cap on commercial lending rates, and the impact of a drought, Equity Group Chief Executive James Mwangi said on Wednesday. Equity, one of the country’s biggest by customers, saw its pretax profit edge up 3.75 percent last year to 24.9 billion shillings ($242.22 million), as it boosted provisions for bad debts. Mwangi said the cap on rates, at 4…

CIM Financial of Mauritius Sees Global Unit Sale Boosting Credit Business

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PORT LOUIS (Capital Markets in Africa) – CIM Financial Services Limited., which has operations spanning Mauritius and Singapore, plans to focus on developing its consumer-credit and real-estate businesses after selling off its Global Business unit. The company, based in Port Louis, announced earlier on Tuesday that it’s selling its Global Business unit — which offers corporate, trust and fiduciary services — to Luxembourg-based SGG SA for $90.3 million. The deal “will allow CIM to benefit from an important…

Africa’s Central Banks Reaction Amid Inflation and Growth Concerns

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Angola’s central bank left its benchmark BNA rate at 16.0% on 30th January 2017. The National Bank of Angola (BNA), which raised its rate 500 basis points last year – most recently in June – to curb inflation, added its monetary policy committee had also taken note of the trend of declining monetary indicators. Botswana’s central bank left its benchmark lending rate unchanged at 5.5% on 28th February 2017, saying…

Tanzania central bank asks commercial banks to cut lending rates

Posted on by The Editorial Team

DAR ES SALAAM (Capital Markets in Africa) – Tanzania’s central bank has asked commercial banks to consider lowering their lending rates to help spark credit growth in east Africa’s second-largest economy. Bank of Tanzania cut its discount rate to 12 percent from 16 percent effectively from March 6, the first time it has lowered borrowing costs since 2013, after a steep drop in private-sector credit growth last year. There were expectations that the move “will enhance…

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