Features

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Altria Group Inc., the maker of Marlboro, fell on news of a possible ban on menthol cigarettes in the U.S., which account for about 20 percent on the company’s profit. A senior U.S. Food and Drug Administration official said last week that the agency is looking at restricting menthol in traditional cigarettes. Doing so would be a step toward eliminating or tightly limiting use of the popular cigarette flavor,…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – The London clubhouse built for activists who helped redesign Britain’s electoral system nearly two centuries ago offered a fitting setting for the crowd of technology entrepreneurs hoping to reinvent money. Those gathered in the Reform Club near Buckingham Palace late last month were just a small part of a fast-growing cohort of idealists and profit-seekers working feverishly on a new breed of digital currencies. Call them crypto 2.0. These coins should, as…

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – Former South African Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan directly implicated Jacob Zuma in being part of an orchestrated campaign to loot billions of rand in taxpayer funds and decimate state institutions during his almost nine-year tenure as president. Gordhan, who now oversees state companies, made the allegations in a statement to a judicial panel that’s investigating claims that members of the Gupta family exploited their close relationship with Zuma to influence cabinet appointments and…