Features

LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa) – The U.K.’s fast-approaching cost-of-living crisis is already making Britons worry about their budgets, setting up a rocky 2022 for households and businesses still reeling from the impact of the pandemic. Many people are particularly worried by both their personal finances and the general economic situation, making them reluctant to splash out on big purchases, according to a closely watched survey of consumer confidence released on Friday. Meanwhile, the arrival of the…

FREE TOWN (Capital Markets in Africa) – From a distance, Kroo Bay, a slum in Sierra Leone’s capital of Freetown, resembles a gigantic overheating engine: Thousands of rust-colored tin shacks stand in rows under the sweltering West African sun, divided only by trash-filled streams of sewage. “It’s warm, warm, warm,” says Mariama Barrie, a 34-year-old mother of three who rents a one-room hut in the heart of the poverty-stricken district. “It feels like we’re being cooked…

ADISS ABABA (Capital Markets in Africa) – At least 143 people have been killed and 213 wounded in air strikes in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region since October last year, according to aid agencies. Civil war has been raging in Ethiopia for the past 14 months, pitting Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s federal forces against dissident troops loyal to the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front. The conflict has swung in Abiy’s favor over recent weeks, with the Tigrayans retreating…

Health Secretary Sajid Javid declined to rule out stronger U.K. Covid-19 rules before Christmas after the nation’s top health advisers urged greater limits to contain infections they estimate are running in the hundreds of thousands per day.  “It’s time to be more cautious: we know this thing is spreading more rapidly,” Javid told BBC News on Sunday.When asked whether he could guarantee a so-called circuit-breaker lockdown wouldn’t be imposed within days, he replied: “There are…

LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa) – The difficulties of relocating staff during a pandemic has postponed some finance jobs from moving out of London and into the European Union, according to EY. “Travel restrictions over the last two years have challenged the practicalities of relocation,” said Omar Ali, head of financial services for Europe, the Middle East, India and Africa at EY. “Depending on the trajectory of the omicron variant and its impact on international…

JOHANNESBURGH (Capital Markets in Africa) – South African hospitals reported having slightly fewer Covid-19 patients than yesterday, the first decline in weeks. Still, the National Institute of Communicable Diseases, does caution that figures can be skewed by late reporting of admissions. Even so the number could be taken as more evidence that the wave of infections caused by the omicron variant may be slowing. On Friday the South African Medical Research Council said that wastewater…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Africa’s newest gas producers are concerned that projects utilizing the resources to broaden access to electricity are under threat by a push to avoid the funding of fossil fuels.  “Many companies operating in the sector are scaling down or pulling out completely” following COP26 pledges to lower carbon emissions, Senegal Oil Minister Sophie Gladima said in an interview at the sidelines of the MSGBC Conference in the city of Diamniadio. Senegal…