Features

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – The World Bank will more than double its commitment to climate adaptation and mitigation in Africa over the next five years to $22.5 billion. “This region is particularly vulnerable to increasing floods, droughts and destructive storms,” World Bank Group Interim President Kristalina Georgievasaid in an emailed statement Wednesday. “We have to do more and do it faster, or millions of people could be plunged into poverty” due to the effects…

GUINEA-BISSAU (Capital Markets in Africa) – Record cocaine busts in Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde have fueled fears of a resurgence of drug trafficking in West Africa that’s likely to benefit Islamist militant groups in the region. Authorities in the two former Portuguese colonies have intercepted as much as 10.4 metric tons of cocaine this year, more than the total amount captured on the entire continent between 2013 and 2016, according to the latest data available…

GUINEA-BISSAU (Capital Markets in Africa) – Guinea-Bissau’s divided ruling party won most seats in a long-delayed legislative vote on March 10, paving the way for a coalition that could ease political tensions in the West African nation. The African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde, known as the PAIGC and formed as a movement to fight Portuguese colonizers in the 1960s, won 47 of the 102 seats in the National Popular Assembly, according…

ADDIS ABABA (Capital Markets in Africa) – Ethiopia will ask European air-safety experts to analyze black boxes from a crashed Boeing Co. jet in a sign U.S. authorities aren’t trusted to determine the cause of the disaster after ruling that the model is safe to fly. The government hasn’t yet decided exactly where to send the data and voice recorders, though a European body will be approached, Ethiopian Airlines, which operated the crashed 737 Max jet, said Wednesday….

LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa) – The debate over a decade-long winning trade is heating up in the U.S. equity market. Shares of the fastest-growing companies will extend their record stretch of leadership over those seen as cheaper relative to earnings or book value, according to Ned Davis Research. The firm shifted its preference after recommending investors hold growth and value stocks equally based on benchmarks. Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs, a long-standing bull on growth stocks, is…

LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa) – Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond issued a fresh warning that leaving the European Union without a deal would damage the U.K. economy and leave people less well off. He said Parliament’s rejection of Theresa May’s Brexit deal had created a “cloud of uncertainty” and warned that crashing out would cause “significant disruption.” He urged politicians to rule out a no-deal Brexit in a vote Wednesday evening. In his Spring Statement, the…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – The Boeing Co. 737 Max crash in Ethiopia looks increasingly likely to hit the planemaker’s order book as mounting safety concerns prompt airlines to reconsider purchases worth about $57 billion. VietJet Aviation JSC, which doubled its order to 200 of the aircraft priced at about $25 billion only last month, said it will decide on its future plans once the cause of the tragedy has been found, while Kenya Airways Plc is reviewing proposals to…