Features

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – After Sri Lanka defaulted on its debt, Jack McIntyre, a portfolio manager at Brandywine Global Investment Management, started watching rice and grain prices more closely. For a swath of the markets he’s tracking, global food shortages are presenting governments with a stark choice — pay their debts or feed their people. Sri Lanka opted for the latter, falling into arrears on its foreign debt May 18 amid a lack of dollars to ease…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – The American government’s efforts to help Africa address crippling electricity shortages will increasingly focus on bolstering the continent’s output of green energy and helping it attract the required investment, a top State Department official said.   “Energy policy that warms our planet cannot continue,” US Under Secretary for Economic Growth, Energy and the Environment Jose W. Fernandez told the Investing in African Mining Indaba conference in Cape Town on Tuesday. “We…

NAIROBI (Capital Markets in Africa) – Kenya’s Deputy President William Ruto lashed out at his boss in a public spat, showing how deep the discord in Uhuru Kenyatta’s administration has gone ahead of elections in August. Ruto, who’s running to succeed Kenyatta, posted a tweet about a longstanding impasse in the cabinet of East Africa’s largest economy. He tweeted in response to a suggestion that he’s been absent from duty, and has become overly critical…

BAMAKO (Capital Markets in Africa) – Mali severed defense ties with France as a multinational force that’s helped the government fight an Islamist insurgency for the past decade withdraws from the West African nation.The decision to end military collaboration marks the latest deterioration in relations between the countries after a series of disputes in recent months. Mali has criticized France’s decision to move its counter-insurgency forces to neighboring Niger, while France has condemned the presence of Russian…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) –  Every time we ask Siri a question on our iPhones, we’re using artificial intelligence, of course, but in what other ways will it infiltrate our lives? AI already goes beyond just Siri or Alexa. Every time you get directions from Google Maps, it’s AI that’s working out the shortest path from A to B. When you get a film recommendation on Netflix, it’s AI that knows about people’s preferences…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decree imposing a new payments system for gas supplies has placed the European Union and Russia at loggerheads, with Moscow demanding that EU companies open accounts in rubles. The issue, sparked by Russia’s war in Ukraine and the Western response to it, escalated on April 27 after Russia cut off gas sales to Poland and Bulgaria, which refused to pay in rubles. At stake is…

NEW YORK (Capital Markets in Africa) – As he negotiated a $44 billion deal to acquire Twitter Inc., Elon Musk told bankers that he would be focused on the social-media company’s bottom line, and floated the idea of cutting both costs and jobs, according to people familiar with the matter. On calls with teams of bankers before the deal was announced, Musk fielded questions on how he would generate financial returns at Twitter. While nothing is…