Features | - Part 232

Nigeria Spends to Fight Slump as Emefiele Targets Inflation

LAGOS, Nigeria, Capital Markets in Africa: Nigeria’s government is looking to spend its way out of an economic slump after the central bank said it can’t bolster growth and is instead targeting inflation with a record interest rate. The government is planning 1.75 trillion naira ($5.6 billion) in capital spending for the year, more than four times the amount spent in 2015, according to information from the budget office. The state has spent 248 billion…

South Africa Vote Rocks ANC as Big Cities Reject Status Quo

Posted on by The Editorial Team

Johannesburg, South Africa, Capital Markets in Africa: South Africa’s ruling African National Congress trailed the main opposition party in four of the country’s biggest cities, including the capital, as results from local elections showed rising discontent among urban voters over a flat-lining economy and scandals surrounding President Jacob Zuma. While later results from its traditional strongholds in the townships around Pretoria, the capital, and economic hub Johannesburg may buoy the ANC vote, the election marks a…

Transcorp Stops $1 Billion Nigeria Power Plan on Scarce Gas

Posted on by The Editorial Team

LAGOS, Nigeria, Capital Markets in Africa Transnational Corp. of Nigeria Plc suspended plans to build one of the nation’s biggest power plants as a local gas shortage makes it difficult to obtain fuel and a downturn in Africa’s largest economy hinders efforts to raise funds for the project. The company in 2014 said it would raise $1 billion to build a 1,000-megawatt gas-fired facility. Two years earlier, it bought the Ughelli plant in the hydrocarbon-rich Niger River…

Chinese Furniture Fashion Ravages West Africa’s Savannas

Posted on by The Editorial Team

LAGOS, Capital Markets in Africa: No one paid much attention to the gnarled, yellow-blossomed rosewood trees dotted around farmsteads in northern Ivory Coast until Chinese-backed buyers started offering money for the timber. Fast forward five years and Ivory Coast is looking back at a tumultuous time in the logging industry, with confusion over permits, illegal harvesting of trees, seizures of trucks, and finally, a blanket ban on rosewood exports in 2014. “We simply had no idea; for…

Despite headwinds, Africa’s economy is still strong

Posted on by The Editorial Team

LAGOS, Nigeria, Capital Markets in Africa: The African Development Bank, in its latest African economic outlook, forecasts economic growth in Africa to be 3.7% for 2016, almost eight-tenths of a percent lower than its forecast for 2015 (4.5%). This lower forecast is as a result of a mixture of factors: the dip in the price of commodities, the economic slowdown in China, droughts in parts of Eastern and Southern Africa, rising levels of insecurity in…

Nigeria’s AMCON to Lease Seized Property to Plug Funding Gap

Posted on by The Editorial Team

LAGOS, Nigeria, Capital Markets in Africa: The Nigerian state-owned agency set up six years ago to take on bad debts and rescue the nation’s banking industry from collapse may lease out properties seized from companies that are failing to repay loans as it grapples with its own cash crunch. The Asset Management Corp. of Nigeria, or AMCON, may introduce the “real-estate investment scheme” by the end of the year to raise money to meet its bond repayments, Chief…

Local Vote May Spur ANC Policy Turn on South African Economy

Posted on by The Editorial Team

Johannesburg, Capital Markets in Africa: South Africa’s most competitive elections since the end of white minority rule in 1994 may force the ruling African National Congress to alter its economic course to address criticism that it’s not doing enough to tackle poverty or reduce a 27 percent unemployment rate. Investors will probably welcome any slippage in the ANC’s dominance in Wednesday’s municipal elections because it could push the party to do more to attract investment…

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