Features | - Part 162

Angola Joins Long List of Oil Nations in Ditching Dollar Peg

LUANDA (Capital Markets in Africa) – Angola is poised to become the latest emerging nation to abandon its currency peg as it seeks to rescue an economy still reeling from the oil-price crash four years ago. The southern African nation, an OPEC member, said this week it would let the kwanza trade within a new band. The rate at which it’s been fixed against the dollar since April 2016 “does not reflect the truth,” according to Jose Massano, who…

Kenya President Keeps Treasury Chief as He Builds Government

Posted on by The Editorial Team

NAIROBI (Capital Markets in Africa) – Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta retained his Treasury and energy chiefs as he begins building a government with the task of reuniting East Africa’s biggest economy after months of electoral uncertainty. Treasury Secretary Henry Rotich and Energy Secretary Charles Keter will remain in their posts, as will the head of the Tourism Ministry, Najib Balala, and Information and Communications Secretary Joseph Mucheru. Kenyatta also named Fred Matiang’i as interior minister in a televised address on Friday,…

Chad Plans Salary Cuts as It Battles to Service Glencore Loan

Posted on by The Editorial Team

CHAD (Capital Markets in Africa~) – Chad plans to reduce the salaries of some civil servants by almost half as the country battles to meet debt commitments. The proposed cuts of 5 percent to 45 percent for some public-sector workers will enable the landlocked nation to comply with a wage ceiling agreed under a bailout with the International Monetary Fund, Finance Minister Abdoulaye Sabre Fadoul told reporters Thursday in the capital, N’Djamena. The Washington-based lender approved…

A Tool for Making Sense of Cryptocurrency Markets: Aaron Brown

Posted on by The Editorial Team

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Bitcoin rose 88 percent from Dec. 1 to 19, then fell 23 percent by Dec. 30, a net 44 percent increase for the month. Attention naturally focused on those events, but the important longer-term story is what’s happening within the entire cryptocurrency sector. The market value of all non-bitcoin crypto assets rose 153 percent during bitcoin’s upswing, and 4 percent more while bitcoin declined, for a return of 162…

Nigeria Loses Almost Half Its Power Output After Pipeline Fire

Posted on by The Editorial Team

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – A fire at a Nigerian pipeline interrupted gas supplies to companies generating more than 3,000 megawatts in Africa’s most populous nation, the government said. The fire at the Escravos-Lagos pipeline owned by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. in the southern Edo state required a shutdown of the pipeline supplying gas to the 1,320-megawatt Egbin power plant, the nation’s biggest, and five others, according to an emailed statement by the Power,…

Politics Trumps Oil Recovery: A Guide to Mideast Markets in 2018

Posted on by The Editorial Team

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – For as long as Gulf economies rely on oil, crude will be a factor in determining how investors trade regional markets. But right now, politics is king. In the past 12 months, tension between Saudi Arabia and Iran escalated, ties between Qatar and its neighbours were severed, rebels in Yemen fired rockets over Riyadh and Saudi Arabia started a crackdown on corruption that led to the arrest of high-profile…

Ramaphosa’s Narrow ANC Vote Win Cuts Odds of Quick Zuma Ouster

Posted on by The Editorial Team

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – Cyril Ramaphosa’s victory in a gruelling battle to lead South Africa’s ruling party may have been the easy part. His narrow win and his allies’ failure to secure three other top posts is likely to delay his ascendancy to the nation’s presidency and plans to revive a stuttering economy. While Ramaphosa won 52 percent of the vote for the top post of the African National Congress, edging out Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma,…

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