Features

CAIRO (Capital Markets in Africa) – Mohamed Mursi, a bespectacled Muslim Brotherhood foot-soldier elevated from obscurity to become Egypt’s first freely elected civilian president, has died. He was 67. Incarcerated since his ouster in 2013, Mursi collapsed and died during a trial that sought to cast elements of the popular revolt that brought him to power as a foreign conspiracy. His death in a court room, defending his record, symbolized the grubby end of the…

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – The African Energy Chamber (EnergyChamber.org) rejects the accusations made by the recent BBC Panorama program on Senegal and believes this case is about a sinister rush to judgment, an obsession to taint a reform-driven President and the oil industry at any cost and by any means, and certainly without an understanding of the facts and how the oil industry works. It is important that in this rush to judgment,…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – The African Energy Chamber has called on African governments and oil companies to do more to protect the security of energy infrastructure in Africa. Oil and gas infrastructure is quickly becoming a principal target for terrorists, rogue organizations, hostile state and non-state actors, and criminal enterprises. The recent attacks in the Middle East – the drone attack on the Saudi Aramco pipelines and the attacks on oil tankers in…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Nigeria plans to increase its palm oil production 700% over the next eight years to help improve its foreign-exchange earnings that are largely dependent on crude oil exports. The new policy will boost local production to about five million tons from 600,000 tons a year by investing as much as 180 billion naira ($500 million) beginning this year, the trade and investment ministry said in a report. “Our policy…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Airbus SE is considering bringing the world’s first hybrid-electric airliner to market as it weighs its strategy for replacing the bread-and-butter A320neo narrowbody in the next 15 years — a move that would mark a technological leap for the aerospace industry. The European planemaker has grown confident that the revolutionary propulsion system will be ready for roll-out on an all-new single-aisle jet around 2035, according to people with knowledge of…

KINSHASA (Capital Markets in Africa) – Former Democratic Republic of Congo President Joseph Kabilastrengthened his grip on the nation’s parliament after the Constitutional Court disqualified more than 20 opposition lawmakers. Former opposition leader Felix Tshisekedi succeeded Kabila in January, following disputed elections in which Kabila’s supporters secured majorities in both chambers of parliament and in provincial assemblies. Second-placed Martin Fayulu claims he obtained the most votes and that Kabila did a secret deal with Tshisekedi to deprive him of victory…