Features

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) — Nigeria expects to license by April one of the vaccines under development globally for Covid-19, the West African nation’s drugs regulator said. “We are looking at the end of the first quarter of next year or the beginning of the second quarter” to approve a shot for use in Nigeria, National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control Director-General Mojisola Adeyeye said in an interview on Wednesday. Africa’s…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) — Terror groups are expanding operations and scaling up attacks in Africa, straining governments ill-prepared to battle extremism as the coronavirus pandemic drains much-needed resources, Verisk Maplecroft said. Rising violence has made sub-Saharan Africa home to seven of the 10 riskiest countries in the world, according to the risk consultancy’s quarterly Terrorism Intensity Index published Friday. Nations including Ivory Coast, Tanzania and Mozambique saw the biggest decline in the index,…

LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa) — A one-off 5% tax on wealth in the U.K. could rise more than 260 billion pounds ($348 billion) to help fix the coronavirus-hit public finances, according to a panel of experts. In a report published Wednesday, the independent Wealth Tax Commission called for a charge of 1% a year for five years on individual assets above 500,000 pounds. About 8 million residents would be affected. The debate over wealth…

NEW YORK (Capital Markets in  Africa) — Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin made a surprise re-entry into talks on a 2020 pandemic-relief package with a $916 billion proposal that opened a potential new path to a year-end deal despite objections from Democrats over elements of the plan. After largely leaving the task to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell since Election Day, Mnuchin pitched a $916 billion stimulus plan to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in a Tuesday afternoon telephone call, more…

ACCRA (Capital Markets in Africa) — Ghanaian opposition leader John Mahama accused the ruling party of using the military to alter the results of Monday’s election. The government denied the allegation. Claims of election rigging are unusual in Ghana, Africa’s top gold producer and one of the continent’s most stable democracies. In the last vote in 2016, Mahama conceded defeat to President Nana Akufo-Addo before a final tally was announced. Ghana’s electoral commission said it’s delayed the release of…

LAGOS (Capitals in Markets in Africa) — There aren’t many contexts where $2 trillion seems like a paltry sum. Then a pandemic comes along. The economic fallout from Covid-19 has left insurers issuing existential warnings and businesses discovering they weren’t covered. It’s resulted in courts packed with lawsuits and governments scrambling to head off more pain. At the core is the reality that the global non-life insurance industry’s $2 trillion in the capital won’t last in a…

NEW YORK (Capital Markets in Africa) — Joe Biden will be one formal step closer to the presidency after Tuesday’s deadline for states to certify their slates of electors to the Electoral College — locking in the names of the people who will formally vote to make Biden the president. Once that happens, there’s little turning back. Congress must by law accept those electors if there’s no outstanding litigation, and President Donald Trump’s legal challenges have…