Features

BAMAKO (Capital Markets in Africa) – Mali President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita secured a second five-year term after beating former Finance Minister Soumaila Cisse in the Aug. 12 runoff election by a landslide. Keita secured 67 percent of the vote against Cisse’s 33 percent, Minister of Territorial Administration and Decentralization Mohamed Ag Erlaf said in a broadcast on state television, ORTM. Turnout was 35 percent of the more than 8 million registered voters, according to Ag Erlaf. The 73-year-old…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari’s party may be wracked by defections and his battles against corruption and an Islamist rebellion under fire, but he has one crucial advantage in securing re-election: incumbency. The 75-year-old leader is going to need all the tools available to repeat his 2015 victory — the first time an opposition party won power at the ballot box in Africa’s biggest oil producer. At his disposal, analysts say,…

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – If there were any doubts that the euphoria following Cyril Ramaphosa’s election as president of South Africa has worn off, this week’s slump in the rand has removed them. The currency has plunged to a level last seen when Jacob Zuma was still in charge, having retreated from a three-year high against the dollar amid a toxic cocktail of negative economic news, political risks and falling commodity prices. An investor retreat from…

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) South Africa’s biggest bank isn’t panicking about the ruling party’s renewed push to expropriate land without compensation. The rand has slumped on concerns that the African National Congress’s bid to change the constitution to boost black ownership of land will undermine property rights and deter investment. “We do not currently expect the proposed constitutional amendment would cause widespread or significant risks to property rights or to the security of the financial-sector’s property…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – With Bitcoin falling, you might expect mining activity to follow. That hasn’t happened. The combination of declining prices and a rising hash rate — which measures computing power — shows how complex the economics of cryptocurrency mining are. An increasing hash rate means Bitcoin mining is still profitable enough for many players to stay put, defying speculation that prices have fallen past break-even points. That may be a reflection of how…

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – South Africa’s police has asked Interpol to help investigate financial wrongdoing at Steinhoff International Holdings NV after the global retailer reported a hole in its accounts and the share price collapsed. The international organization could help connect the dots at the owner of Conforama in France and Mattress Firm in the U.S., which is being investigated by regulators in Germany and the Netherlands and a host of law enforcement agencies. At…