Features

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) — Cryptocurrency enthusiasts counting on Bitcoin to bounce back above the $40,000 level face a challenge due to faltering demand for the biggest fund tracking the digital asset, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co. The pace of flows into the $20 billion Grayscale Bitcoin Trust “appears to have peaked” based on four-week rolling averages, JPMorgan strategists led by Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou said in a note Friday. The fund slid 22% over the past two weeks…

LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa) — The U.K. said its coronavirus vaccine rollout will accelerate with the opening of seven regional centers at sports and conference venues this week, amid warnings hospitals are struggling to cope as cases surge. Health Secretary Matt Hancock said Sunday the U.K. is “on course” to meet its vaccine target with more than 200,000 people receiving doses every day and the total now stands at about 2 million. The government…

LAGOS (Bloomberg Opinion) — This is one of a series of interviews by Bloomberg Opinion columnists on how to solve today’s most pressing policy challenges. It has been condensed and edited. James Gibney: About two weeks ago, more than 300 schoolboys were freed after being abducted from a boarding school by gunmen in northwest Nigeria, an incident that drew widespread media attention. What do this episode and its murky resolution tell us about Nigeria and…

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) — The new coronavirus strain that emerged in South Africa is even more problematic than a mutated form that prompted new lockdowns across much of the U.K., health authorities said on Monday. “I’m incredibly worried about the South African variant,” U.K. Health Secretary Matt Hancock said on BBC radio Monday, citing a conversation over the Christmas holiday with his counterpart in South Africa. “One of the reasons they know they’ve got a…

ACCRA (Capital Markets in Africa) — The first consignment of Ghanaian shipments to the U.K. to face post-Brexit tariffs docked at Portsmouth last night, including 185 metric tons of bananas, the majority of which were so-called Fairtrade. Because Britain and the European Union reached a trade deal so close to the divorce transition deadline of Dec. 31, some other “continuity” deals — those intended to roll over the terms of trade the U.K. enjoyed as…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) — Universal Music Group Inc. is bolstering its presence in Africa, where streaming and other forms of music distribution are relatively underdeveloped. The firm, majority-owned by Vivendi SA, plans to build up operations in countries including Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya in 2021, according to the company’s newly appointed regional chief executive officer, Sipho Dlamini. Universal also has an office in Ivory Coast to oversee French-speaking countries, alongside a base in…

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) — South African medical insurance companies, business organizations, and the government are developing a program in which the private sector will help fund Covid-19 vaccines for people not covered by insurance. Legislation has been amended to allow the companies to fund shots for people who don’t have medical insurance and talks are now focused on the number of those who may benefit, said Stavros Nicolaou, head of the Health Workgroup for B4SA,…