News | - Part 28

Zambia Increases Local Debt Auctions to Fund Bulging Deficit

Lusaka, Zambia, Capital Markets in Africa — Zambia will boost the value of Treasury bills and bonds it offers to investors taking advantage of increased demand for the securities as it seeks to fund a fiscal deficit that’s set to grow to more than double what Finance Minister Alexander Chikwanda budgeted for. Local-currency debt sales will increase to 700 million kwacha ($71 million) per auction from 450 million kwacha for Treasury bills, and to 800 million kwacha from…

Zimbabwe Scraps Plan to Swap Dollar Earnings to Rand, Euros

Posted on by The Editorial Team

HARARE, Zimbabwe, Capital Markets in Africa: Zimbabwe’s central bank abandoned a plan to convert half of its export earnings into South African rand and euros as it explores ways to ease a shortage of dollars. In a statement on Tuesday, the institution said it will now require 50 percent of export earnings to be transferred to a Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe account. The central bank will then immediately credit the same amount, plus a 5 percent “export…

Nigeria | China’s Africa Push Reaches Currencies in Deal Investors Decry

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LAGOS, Nigeria, Capital Markets in Africa: Strategists are criticizing Nigeria’s latest plan to rescue its currency — this time by relying on Chinese cash. On a visit to Beijing last month, President Muhammadu Buhari signed a currency agreement aimed at encouraging trade with China and reducing Nigeria’s demand for dollars to relieve pressure on its dwindling foreign reserves. While the deal, details of which are still being negotiated, helps China’s push into Africa’s largest economy, it will…

Nigerian President Replies to British PM ‘Return the Stolen Funds’

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LAGOS, Nigeria, Capital Markets in Africa: Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari said he isn’t demanding an apology from the U.K. after comments from Prime Minister David Cameron that the country was “fantastically corrupt.” President Buhari was asked if his country was “fantastically corrupt” as Cameron had claimed, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari answered “yes,” and said that he wasn’t demanding an apology for the comments. In addition, he said “What I am demanding is the return of assets” that are the product of corruption…

South Africa | Barclays Unit Rejects South Africa Minister’s Invite to Gupta Talks

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Johannesburg, South Africa, Capital Markets in Africa: Barclays Africa Group Limited’s Absa declined an invitation to meet South African Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane to discuss the closure of bank accounts related to companies controlled by the Gupta family, who are friends of President Jacob Zuma and in business with his son. “We have respectfully declined on account of client confidentiality,” the Johannesburg-based lender said in an e-mailed response to questions on Wednesday. “As a bank we cannot discuss any…

Nigeria’s Access Bank Latest Lender Targeted in Anti-Graft Drive

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LAGOS, Nigeria, Capital Markets in Africa: Access Bank Plc, a Nigerian lender, said Group Managing Director Herbert Wigwe was taken and questioned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission at its offices about a client bank transaction last week, the third bank to be caught up in an investigation by the nation’s anti-graft agency. Wigwe was released on May 6, the Lagos-based bank with offices in seven other countries, said in a statement posted on the Nigerian…

Kenya | Equity Group Pauses Africa Expansion Plans as Economies Slow

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Nairobi, Kenya, Capital Markets in Africa: Equity Group Holdings Ltd., Kenya’s biggest bank by market value, put plans to expand into five other African countries on hold after sliding prices for commodities from oil to copper caused currencies to tumble. The lender, which had prioritized entries into Nigeria, Angola, Ghana, Mozambique and Zambia, will instead focus on deepening its presence in markets in which it already operates by growing branch networks, Chief Executive Officer James Mwangi said. “We…

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