Features | - Part 197

Blind’ Preparations Seen Stoking Risk of Kenyan Vote Unrest

NAIROBI (Capital Markets in Africa) – Less than a month before Kenyans are due to go to the polls, electoral authorities are behind on everything from printing ballot papers to finalizing a voter list. That risks a disputed outcome and unrest a decade after post-election violence engulfed the East African nation. While the Independent Electoral & Boundaries Commission says the vote will take place Aug. 8, there has been a court appeal over the ballot…

Global Food Markets Face Supply-Shock Risk on Imbalances

Posted on by The Editorial Team

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Most food commodities are dominated by a handful of exporting countries, exposing global markets to significant supply shocks when crops disappoint or policies change, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and the United Nations. For products ranging from wheat to cheese and pork to poultry, the top five supplying countries will account for more than 70 percent of global exports in 2026, the OECD and the…

Nigeria’s Succession Jitters With Ill President Buhari

Posted on by The Editorial Team

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Nigeria is awash in nervous speculation over the health of President Muhammadu Buhari, who hasn’t appeared in public since he returned to the U.K. for medical treatment for an undisclosed ailment on May 7. Buhari, 74 and a Muslim, has formally designated his deputy, Yemi Osinbajo, acting president as he did when he was away on medical leave for 49 days from Jan. 20. The prospect of Osinbajo, a 60-year-old Christian,…

South Africa’s Welfare Agency Scraps Minister’s Advisory Teams

Posted on by The Editorial Team

Johannesburg (Capital Markets in Africa) – The South African Social Services Agency has scrapped the advisory groups that were set up to plan for the future of the country’s more than $11 billion of annual welfare payments. Letters were sent to the so-called “work streams” last week informing them of their termination, Sassa Chief Executive Officer Thokozani Magwaza said in an interview at Bloomberg’s Johannesburg office on Monday. Magwaza said he had informed Social Development Minister…

Climate of Fear Engulfs Rwanda’s Upcoming Vote, Amnesty Says

Posted on by The Editorial Team

KIGALI (Capital Markets in Africa) – Rwandan President Paul Kagame is seeking re-election amid a climate of fear that’s the result of two decades of crackdowns on the political opposition, media and human-rights defenders, Amnesty International said. A report from the London-based group released Friday said freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly have all been restricted since the Rwandan Patriotic Front came to power in the wake of the East African nation’s 1994 genocide. Opposition politicians…

Tanzania Passes Laws Enabling Renegotiation of Mining Deals

Posted on by The Editorial Team

DAR ES SALAAM (Capital Markets in Africa) – Tanzania approved two laws that enable the government to renegotiate contracts with mining and energy companies as the state seeks a greater share of revenue from natural resources. The bills, which deal with state sovereignty over mineral wealth and contracts containing “unconscionable terms,” were approved by parliament on Monday 3rd July 2017. The Tanzania Chamber of Minerals and Energy (TCME), the main industry lobby group that has…

Hunger Used as a Weapon of War in South Sudan, Amnesty Says

Posted on by The Editorial Team

JUBA (Capital Markets in Africa) – South Sudanese government forces and rebels have used hunger as a weapon of war in a region once seen as the country’s breadbasket that’s been ravaged by killings, gang-rapes and looting over the past year, Amnesty International said. Civilians’ access to food in the southern region of Equatorial, where conflict spread last July, is “severely limited” after combatants cut supplies, looted from markets and homes and targeted civilians, the…

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