Features

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,…

NEW YORK (Capital Markets in Africa) – President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial formally opens in the Senate on Tuesday, promising to shape his legacy, deepen the country’s political divisions and influence control of power in the nation’s capital for years to come. While the president faces little risk of removal from office by the Republican-led Senate, the trial may bring to light new details of Trump’s Ukraine scandal and help sway undecided voters in the 2020…

NEW YORK (Capital Markets in Africa) – They are the two highest-profile attendees at this year’s annual World Economic Forum, but their respective recipes for global salvation couldn’t be further apart. President Donald Trump and climate activist Greta Thunberg talked past each other in dueling speeches at Davos on Tuesday that underscored the difficulty in achieving any kind of consensus on the urgency of the environmental challenges facing the planet. Trump, addressing the annual meeting of the…

The 8th Annual AFSIC – Investing in Africa Forum, scheduled for May 5th -7th 2020 in London, has already confirmed over 300 top-level speakers and panelists including a huge range of Africa’s most important investors, dealmakers and business leaders, who will unpack the increasing global investment momentum into Africa’s growing public and private sectors and highlight new growth opportunities across the continent. The AFSIC 2020 agenda is specifically investment-focused, with several of the most experienced…

LUANDA (Capital Markets in Africa) – Isabel dos Santos, Africa’s richest woman, built her multi-billion dollar business empire via a series of questionable deals involving Angolan state assets during her father’s 38-year rule of the resource-rich nation, according to a report by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. Dos Santos got access to lucrative deals involving state-owned oil company Sonangol, diamonds, land and telecommunications and funds were diverted to offshore bank accounts linked to her and her…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – In a memorable exchange at Davos last year, tech billionaire Michael Dell was explaining how higher taxes on the rich had never done much good anywhere, when he was contradicted. Actually, said Erik Brynjolfsson, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, they’d worked pretty well within living memory in his own country, the U.S. For an executive crowd that’s thrived under 40 years or more of policies based…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – The European Union may deploy a military mission to help enforce an arms embargo and a potential cease-fire in Libya, as the bloc scrambles to contain a conflict that’s drawn in Russia and Turkey and that threatens to destabilize the Mediterranean. While no decisions were taken at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels on Monday, two officials present in the discussion said there was consensus that preparations should begin…