Features

NEW YORK (Capital Markets in Africa) — President Joe Biden’s administration is setting up its trade policy to prioritize enforcement of existing commitments by the U.S.’s partners over negotiating more deals to open new export markets. Biden’s likely strategy for supporting American producers focuses on going after violations via dialogue, work with allies and use of dispute-resolution mechanisms in existing trade agreements rather than following the Trump administration’s more blunt unilateral tool of national-security tariffs,…

CAIRO (Capital Markets in Africa) — The former chief executive officer of Just Eat is putting his own money into one of Egypt’s main food-delivery apps, looking to tap growth in the nation of over 100 million people where practically everything can be ordered by a phone call. David Buttress, who led the London-based company from 2013 to 2017 before its merger with Takeaway.com, said he’s investing a “relatively significant” sum in elmenus, the Egyptian…

MAPUTO (Capital Markets in Africa) — Privinvest Shipbuilding SAL and its billionaire founder Iskandar Safa have placed Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi at the center of the nation’s $2 billion debt scandal. Court documents filed in London reveal that the shipbuilding company and the French-Lebanese businessman made payments to Nyusi and other senior officials after negotiating contracts for government maritime projects. They denied the remittances were bribes or illegal and said they were understood to be…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa): Early agreements to purchase Covid-19 vaccines are beginning to pay off for the likes of Britain, the U.S., and Canada, but much of the world is waiting. Tempers are flaring over scarce supplies of the shots, with the European Union set to tighten rules on the export of vaccines in a move that risks a global protectionist battle between countries. And although there are ambitious efforts to ensure that the…

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) — A new Covid-19 vaccine from Novavax Inc. was effective in big trials in the U.K. and South Africa, though its protective power appeared to be reduced in South Africa, where a worrisome mutation is prevalent. The results indicated that another highly potent vaccine could soon be available to help ameliorate the pandemic, in addition to existing vaccines from Pfizer Inc., Moderna Inc., and AstraZeneca Plc that are authorized in…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) — Royal Dutch Shell Plc faces the latest ruling in a long-running legal dispute with Nigerian farmers who say the energy giant is responsible for oil leaks that have polluted their villages. The case is the first in which a company and its foreign subsidiary have been tried in the Netherlands for allegedly breaching duty of care abroad, and it could have far-reaching implications for future suits brought against oil…