Features

MONROVIA (Capital Markets in Africa) – Three former senior officials of Liberia’s central bank, including a son of ex-President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, were charged with seven counts of corruption following a probe into the disappearance of about $100 million in cash that was printed abroad. The government has been trying to determine what happened to containers of Liberian dollars that were brought into the small West African nation between 2016 and 2018 under the previous administration,…

LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa) – A stem-cell treatment put a London cancer patient’s HIV into remission, marking the second such reported case and reinvigorating efforts to cure the AIDS-causing infection that afflicts some 37 million people globally. The patient has been in remission for 19 months, the International AIDS Society said in a statement. That’s too soon to label the treatment — which used hematopoietic stem cells from a donor with an HIV-resistance gene —…

LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa) – Britain’s judges have gotten used to lawsuits from remain supporters trying to frustrate Brexit, with varying degrees of success. Now, with Brexit potentially just weeks away, they’re grappling with a new breed of cases, from companies that need urgent decisions on the consequences of the split. Lawsuits that need to be heard before the U.K. leaves the European Union have been hurtling through the courts. The latest is a trial starting Fridayover…

LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa) – With a month to go until Britain is due to leave the European Union, Theresa May is facing an apparently impossible task as she tries to get her Brexit deal approved by Parliament. Can the prime minister somehow defy the odds and deliver Brexit on time? Negotiations are still ongoing in Brussels, with U.K. Attorney General Geoffrey Cox looking for a way around the problem of the contentious Irish backstop. May’s spokesman said…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Aliko Dangote’s $17 billion net worth makes the Nigerian the richest person in Africa and the only member of the Bloomberg Billionaires Index from one of the 60 poorest countries. About half of Nigeria’s 190.9 million citizens subside on less than $1.90 a day, giving it a Gini coefficient (a measure of wealth distribution) of 48.8, compared with 41.5 for the U.S. and 29.2 for Sweden. Dangote, 61, is among just a few…

NAIROBI (Capital Markets in AfricaA) – At least two Kenyan cabinet secretaries are facing arrest for their alleged role in two dam projects through which public funds were misappropriated, the Star reported, citing people it didn’t identify. The cabinet secretaries in the East African nation could face charges of negligence or conspiracy to steal public funds meant for construction of the dams in the Rift Valley, the Nairobi-based newspaper said Thursday. The two dam projects…

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa)- South African state companies have been brought to their knees by graft, according to Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan. At least seven state companies are “either on their knees or touching carpet” as institutions were damaged due to so-called state capture, Gordhan said Thursday at a conference in Johannesburg. As much as 500 billion rand ($36 billion) probably left South Africa due to state capture, he said, using a local term…