Features

NEW YORK (Capital Markets in Africa) – President Donald Trump’s lawyers begin their final day of arguments Tuesday having only barely noted the bombshell revelation from former National Security Adviser John Bolton that threatens to upset White House plans for a quick end to the Senate impeachment trial. Trump’s defense team will wrap up their case on Tuesday, followed by hours of questions from senators. Then will come what promises to be a dramatic debate and a moment of reckoning…

Johannesburg, 28 January 2020; Africa’s abundant clean energy resources, coupled with new investments in renewable energy technologies, have spearheaded Africa into a clean energy revolution. As reported by the International Energy Agency (IEA), renewable energy is believed to constitute approximately 50% of sub-Saharan Africa’s power generation growth by 2040, consequently accelerating Africa’s novice economies. Receiving more sun than any of its continental counterparts, along with its vast geothermal, wind and wave energy capacity and progressive energy…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission charged Mohammed Adoke, a former justice minister and attorney general, for allegedly taking a bribe to facilitate a $1.3 billion oil deal. The anti-graft body filed 42 charges against Adoke and accused him of receiving a 300 million naira ($831,000) payment from businessman Aliyu Abubakar in relation to the acquisition of Oil Prospecting License 245 in the Gulf of Guinea, the commission said in…

NEW YORK (Capital Markets in Africa) – The struggle over calling witnesses in President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial is escalating as House Democrats prepare to wrap up their case Friday by focusing on White House “stonewalling.” House impeachment managers will have another day to convince a handful of Republicans to vote with Democrats to subpoena witnesses and documents before Trump’s lawyers take the Senate floor to present their defense. Over the past two days, Intelligence Chairman Adam…

LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa) – Banks are increasingly embracing a change that could trigger upheaval for Wall Street’s vaunted stock analysts: They’ve started allowing U.S. clients to buy research without paying a steep tab for trading services. The shift, which banks’ brokerage businesses have privately shared with customers, is arguably the biggest U.S. fallout yet from sweeping European rules that force firms to charge separately for analysis. Those regulations, which took effect in 2018, sparked a…

LUANDA (Capital Markets in Africa) – A banker with ties to Isabel dos Santos was found dead on the same day that Angola’s prosecutor named both him and Africa’s richest woman as suspects in an investigation over alleged mismanagement at state oil company Sonangol. Nuno Ribeiro da Cunha, 45, appeared to have hanged himself in the garage of his apartment building in Lisbon, Portuguese police said in a statement Thursday. He had attempted to commit suicide earlier…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Nigeria’s government was surprised by the news that the U.S. is considering travel restrictions on its citizens and the ban would mean officials will have to find new ways to meet with investors, Finance Minister Zainab Ahmed said. Nigeria is one of seven countries, more than half of which are in Africa, included in a list that may be affected if the Homeland Security Department’s recommendation to expand restrictions is approved,…