Features

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Amina Sanusi was getting ready for morning prayers at her home in northeastern Nigeria when she heard gunshots and explosions. She scrambled into nearby bushes with her two children, but lost contact with her husband. Government soldiers in the fishing town of Baga on the shores of Lake Chad fled too, overwhelmed by the firepower of Islamist militants. Like thousands of others since an upsurge in attacks that started…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Almost every Nigerian vote since independence in 1960 has been dogged by varying degrees of conflict and allegations of rigging. That’s one reason why the 2015 election that saw Muhammadu Buhari, now 76, become the first candidate in the nation’s history to topple a sitting president through the ballot box was such a watershed moment. But the former military ruler has presided over four years of lackluster growth and fallen short on…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) A two-decade fight over whether Royal Dutch Shell Plccontributed to the execution of nine Nigerian oil-industry critics has landed at the company’s doorstep. A court in The Hague, Netherlands heard its first arguments on Tuesday, as part of determining if Shell played any role when the military dictatorship ruling Nigeria convicted nine men, including well-known activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, of murder and then executed them in 1995. The escalation of the court battle…

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – Two new coal-fired power plants being built in South Africa, which will be the continent’s largest once completed, are “badly designed and badly constructed,” Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan said as the country reels under a third day of rolling blackouts. State-owned power utility Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. “encapsulates the challenge of where developmental state institutions can go wrong,” Gordhan told lawmakers in Cape Town Tuesday. The utility cut…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – President Donald Trump is eyeing a path to avoid another government shutdown where he would reluctantly accept the congressional border-security deal and attempt to tap other funds for his wall. Trump is likely to grudgingly sign the legislation and then immediately use his executive authority to fund additional border measures, said a person who talked to the president Tuesday and asked not to be identified to discuss private conversations. Late Tuesday,…

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – South Africa grappled with traffic gridlock and shuttered businesses after the struggling state power utility cut supply for a third day to prevent a total collapse of the grid. The return to blackouts compounds worries about Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd.’s precarious position and the threat it poses to the economy. It’s also an embarrassment for the ruling African National Congress just three months ahead of national elections. The rand tumbled Monday and…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Voters need to choose between a pair of uninspiring presidential candidates, neither offering a fix for its struggling economy. What’s a Nigerian citizen to do when there’s a presidential election coming up and the two leading candidates are a former dictator who’s presided over four years of lackluster growth and an alleged kleptocrat of international repute? This is the choice facing Africa’s largest oil producer, and by some measures…