Features | - Part 188

Dreams of Europe Life Spur Perilous Journey From West Africa

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Kadi Bah saw people starving in the Sahara desert and drowning in the Mediterranean during her failed six-month odyssey to reach Europe. But as soon as the United Nations plane bringing her back home from Libya to Ivory Coast touched down, she was hatching plans to try again. “I’ll be so proud of myself if I can make it to Europe; I’ll tell everybody I managed to leave,” the…

Sasfin Fires KPMG in Wake of South African Gupta Scandal

Posted on by The Editorial Team

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – Sasfin Holdings Ltd., a South African financial-services company, said it’s firing KPMG LLP as its independent sponsor and searching for a new auditor, becoming the second company to announce it has dumped the firm because of work it did for the politically connected Gupta family. The decisions were based on “the well-publicized concerns recently raised with regard to KPMG,” Johannesburg-based Sasfin said in an emailed statement on Tuesday. Deloitte…

Tanzanian Leader’s War for Taxes Puts Economy in Firing Line

Posted on by The Editorial Team

DAR ES SALAAM (Capital Markets in Africa) – Tanzanian President John Magufuli’s deepening dispute with companies he accuses of being tax cheats is rattling investors and dimming the allure of one of Africa’s fastest-growing economies. Since taking office in late 2015, Magufuli has been on a drive to increase revenue from natural resources to help fund his industrialization plans. His administration has passed laws enabling it to renegotiate contracts and ordered foreign mining firms to…

Death Threats, Split Authority Said to Endanger Kenyan Vote

Posted on by The Editorial Team

NAIROBI (Capital Markets in Africa) – Death threats to top members of Kenya’s divided electoral body are endangering preparations for a rerun of last month’s annulled presidential election, a senior official at the authority said. The relatives of one administrator at the Independent Electoral & Boundaries Commission fled the country after their lives were threatened, while Chairman Wafula Chebukati made additional security arrangements for his family, said the official, who asked not to be identified…

KPMG Slammed by South Africa’s Pravin Gordhan on Tax Report

Posted on by The Editorial Team

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – Pravin Gordhan, who was ousted from his post as South Africa’s finance minister in March, slammed KPMG LLP after it withdrew the findings of a report on the country’s tax agency that was used as evidence in a police probe against him and led to the removal of senior staff. The auditing firm said on Friday that its conclusions and recommendations in a report for the South African Revenue Service about a unit that allegedly…

Nigeria Signals Oil-Output Cap Needs Six Months of Stability

Posted on by The Editorial Team

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Nigeria indicated Wednesday that it won’t be willing to cap its oil production until at least the second quarter of next year, and then only if it’s managed to keep output consistent near its target for six months. The OPEC member, which along with Libya was exempted from a 2016 accord to reduce production to ease a global-supply glut, had previously said that the output limit would come into play…

Boko Haram Defies Buhari With More Attacks in Northeast Nigeria

Posted on by The Editorial Team

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Ten months after Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari declared a victory over Boko Haram, the Islamist militant group is stepping up attacks in the far northeast of the country. Boko Haram militants deployed at least 80 children as “human bombs” this year, Mark Lowcock, the United Nations under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, said on Tuesday in the north-eastern city of Maiduguri, the group’s birthplace. The most spectacular attack occurred in July when the…

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