Features

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – President Xi Jinping is using a gathering of dozens of African leaders in Beijing to push back against criticism that China’s vast development initiatives risk saddling emerging economies with debt. The Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, which begins Monday, provides a high-profile chance for Xi to defend his signature Belt and Road Initiative to develop roads, railways, ports, pipelines and other trade links. At a business event ahead of the summit, Xi said China had…

ACCRA (Capital Markets in Africa) – Ghana signed eight cooperation agreements with China following talks between the two nations’ leaders in Beijing ahead of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation that starts Monday. The package of agreements included the $2 billion infrastructure deal Ghana reached in July with Sinohydro Corp. to improve its roads and develop railways in exchange for bauxite, according to a statement from the office of President Nana Akufo-Addo. “We are looking seriously at how…

NAIROBI (Capital Markets in Africa) – A proposed joint venture between Kenya Airways Plc and the East African nation’s airports manager to run the capital’s main airport will improve the facility and provide more income for the airline, its chairman said. The carrier partially owned by Air France-KLM is in talks with the Kenya Airports Authority to jointly oversee Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport. KQ, as the airline is also known, currently pays landing fees…

NAIROBI (Capital Markets in Africa) – Kenyan authorities arrested Deputy Chief Justice Philomena Mwilu Tuesday for alleged abuse of office and for accepting money “in circumstances which undermined public confidence in the integrity of her office.” The top judge got a loan from Imperial Bank Ltd., which is in receivership, under false pretences, Director of Public Prosecutions Noordin Haji told reporters in the capital, Nairobi. Mwilu, who was appointed to her post in October 2016,…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari declined to sign an oil-industry reform bill passed by lawmakers and indicated his concerns in a letter to the legislature, a senior aide said. “The president has declined assent in a letter he sent to the National Assembly about a month ago,” Eta Enang, the presidential adviser on legislative affairs, told reporters Wednesday in Abuja, the capital. “It doesn’t mean that the bill is completely dead,” he…

HARARE (Capital Markets in Africa) – European and British diplomats proposed the creation of a U.K.-style parliamentary opposition structure in Zimbabwe to reduce political tensions after last month’s disputed presidential election. EU and U.K. emissaries met senior members of the ruling party and the opposition in the past 10 days to discuss the proposals, according to three people familiar with the talks who asked not to be identified because they aren’t authorized to speak to…