East Africa | - Part 18

Kenyan Inflation Jumps to Five-Year High as Drought Bites

NAIROBI (Capital Markets in Africa) -Kenya’s annual inflation rate accelerated to its highest level in almost five years as an ongoing drought compounds price pressures. Consumer prices surged 10.3 percent in March from 9 percent in February, the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics said in a statement emailed from the capital, Nairobi, when they broke through the Central Bank of Kenya’s 7.5 percent ceiling. The rate is the highest since June 2012 when inflation registered at…

World Bank-Funded $340m Rusumo Power Plant Construction to Begin

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Facility at Rusumo Falls will take 3 years to complete, provide 80 MW for Burundi, Rwanda and Tanzania, according to World Bank statement. Plant will be managed by Rusumo Power Company, a utility jointly owned by the three nations African Development Bank is financing a further $121m for transmission lines that will connect power plant to national grids JV between Chinese companies CGCOC Group and Jiangxi Water & Hydropower…

Kenya Budgets Increased Spending Ahead of General Elections

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NAIROBI (Capital Markets in Africa) – Kenya plans a slight increase in government spending ahead of general elections in August as concerns increase that it could be taking on more debt than it can handle to finance its budget. Treasury Secretary Henry Rotich told lawmakers the government planned to increase spending to 2.287 trillion shillings ($22.2 billion) in the fiscal year that starts in July, a 2.6 percent increase from 2016-17. “We shall continue to progressively reduce…

War-Ravaged South Sudan Draws $500 Million Oranto Oil Bet

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Nigeria’s Oranto Petroleum International Ltd. plans to bet half a billion dollars that Africa’s newest nation can end a three-year civil war and create the conditions to revive its oil industry. Oranto, a closely held company part-owned by the Eze family that also has assets in Equatorial Guinea and Nigeria, plans to invest $500 million to develop the oil block awarded by South Sudan earlier this month. “We have faith that the differences in…

Home Afrika of Kenya Seeking Up to $49 Million From Investors

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NAIROBI (Capital Markets in Africa) – Home Afrika Limited, a Kenyan property developer, will return to debt markets to raise as much as 5 billion shillings ($48.6 million) and complete projects in the capital and on the East African nation’s coast. The company, based in Nairobi, has picked Genghis Capital Ltd. to offer between 2 billion and 5 billion shillings to international investors in the first phase of the funds drive that’s set to begin by April,…

Kenya sells bond over mobile phones in world first

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NAIROBI (Capital Markets in Africa) – Kenyans can now buy government bonds using only their mobile phones. The nation’s Treasury on Thursday began selling 150 million shillings ($1.5 million) of three-year debt using a platform known as M-Akiba, the first such product across East Africa. “For the first time we will provide government securities to the entire population,” Central Bank Governor Patrick Njoroge said at a briefing in the capital, Nairobi. “This will dramatically change the savings…

Uganda says seeking $500 million loan from China for roads in oil area

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KAMPALA (Capital Markets in Africa) – Uganda says it has asked China for a $500 million loan to help build almost 600 km (360 miles) of roads in the country’s oil-rich west, amid criticism over heavy borrowing that has ballooned the country’s debt. Uganda has discovered an estimated 6.5 billion barrels of crude reserves on its Albertine rift basin along the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo. However, lack of infrastructure, such as roads…

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