Features

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Never in human history has a ton of coal cost more. Governments and utilities across the globe are willing to pay record sums to literally keep the lights on. That’s the bruising reality that global leaders must face at the high-stakes climate talks in Glasgow this month as hopes fade for a deal to end the world’s reliance on the dirtiest fuel. The burning of coal represents the biggest…

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – The family office for Nicky Oppenheimer and his son Jonathan has set up an outpost in Singapore to boost its Asia exposure and partner with the region’s wealthy. Edoardo Collevecchio, the former chief of staff for Oppenheimer Generations, is moving from London to build and lead its team in Singapore, while Yi Ling Ong joins from Temasek Holdings Pte as head of investment for the Asia unit, the company…

LOBAMBA (Capital Markets in Africa) – Eswatini, Africa’s last absolute monarchy, shut schools indefinitely as pro-democracy protests intensified.  Lessons are suspended with immediate effect, Prime Minister Cleopas Dlamini said in a statement. The unrest comes less than four months after police and the army acted to crush similar widespread demonstrations in the kingdom. The pro-democracy protests have escalated in recent weeks with pupils and public-transport workers joining the calls for change. King Mswati, 53, who’s ruled…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Google Bay View, the company’s newest campus, consists of three squat buildings nestled near the San Francisco Bay shoreline a few miles east of its headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. The first things visitors notice are the roofs. They curve down gently from pinched peaks, like circus tents, sloping almost to the ground. Each roof is blanketed with overlapping solar panels that glisten with a brushed metal sheen on…

LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa) – Former U.K. Health Secretary Matt Hancock’s appointment to a United Nations special envoy role has been scrapped.  “Mr. Hancock’s appointment by the UN Economic Commission for Africa is not being taken forward,” UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told PassBlue, a news website that specializes in UN coverage, on Friday, adding “ECA has advised him of the matter.”  In an appointment letter to Hancock, Vera Songwe, executive secretary of the ECA, lauded the “success…

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – The world’s richest countries are courting South Africa as a model of how to transition to a more climate-friendly future from a dependency on coal. While $5 billion of cheap loans and grants are on offer as a first step, transforming Africa’s most industrialized economy demands more than cash. It needs to win over power brokers like Gwede Mantashe, a former coal unionist who is now energy minister and chairman…