News | - Part 36

Egypt Set to Name Ex-Banker as Finance Chief, State Media Says

CAIRO, Egypt, Capital Markets in Africa — Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi is set to appoint former investment banker Amr El-Garhy as finance minister as part of a partial cabinet change on Wednesday, the state-run Al-Akhbar newspaper reported. El-Garhy, a former executive at investment bank EFG-Hermes, will replace Hany Kadry Dimian, the newspaper reported, without saying how it obtained the information. El-Garhy is currently a board member of the Cairo-based investment firm Qalaa Holdings. His possible appointment was also reported…

Egypt Approaches JPMorgan, FGB as Bank Markets Local Debt

Posted on by The Editorial Team

CAIRO, Egypt, Capital Markets in Africa — National Bank of Egypt officials met with banks in the United Arab Emirates, including JPMorgan Chase & Co., as the North Africa nation seeks to attract foreign investors to its local-currency debt market after the biggest one-time devaluation of the pound since 2003 last week. Senior executives, including the bank’s treasurer, also met with First Gulf Bank and other investors to “explain” and market its product for hedging foreign-exchange risk aimed…

Zimbabwe orders foreign firms to Sell Shares to Black by April 1

Posted on by The Editorial Team

Harare, Zimbabwe, Capital Markets in Africa — Zimbabwe will shut down foreign-owned companies on April 1 if they don’t comply with a law that requires them to sell or cede 51 percent of their shares to black Zimbabweans, Indigenization Minister Patrick Zhuwao said. The Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act was passed in 2010 under President Robert Mugabe’s black empowerment drive but implementation has been slow. “Comply by that date or close shop, comply by that date…

Morocco central bank cuts benchmark interest rate to 2.25 percent

Posted on by The Editorial Team

CASABLANCA, Morocco, Capital Markets in Africa — The Moroccan central bank cut its benchmark interest rate on Tuesday for the first time since December 2014 in an attempt to stimulate an economy hurt by weak cereal production and non-agriculture activity. The Bank reduced the key rate by 25 basis points to 2.25 percent, Bank Al-Maghrib said in a statement. The central bank also lowered its growth forecast for this year to 1 percent from 3…

Central Bank of Kenya keeps interest rate at 11.50% in March

Posted on by The Editorial Team

NAIROBI, Kenya, Capital Markets in Africa — The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) met on March 21, 2016 to review market developments and the impact of its previous monetary policy decisions. The MPC decided to retain the Central Bank Rate (CBR) at its current level of 11.5 percent, to continue to anchor inflation expectations and enhance the credibility of its policy stance. The Bank noted that month-on-month overall inflation fell to 6.8 percent in February 2016,…

Buhari Says Nigeria’s Currency Squeeze Is a ‘Temporary Phase’

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LAGOS, Nigeria, Capital Market in Africa — Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari said the foreign-exchange squeeze being faced by the country is a “temporary phase” to be overcome when structural problems are addressed. “It grieves me that so many manufacturing industries in the country today are groaning and frustrated because of lack of foreign exchange to import raw materials and spare parts,” Buhari said Monday at the start of a meeting on the economy in Abuja,…

South Africa’s Reserve Bank Raises Repo rate by 25 basis points in March

Posted on by The Editorial Team

Johannesburg, South Africa, Capital Markets in Africa — The South Africa Reserve Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) raised the Repo rate by 25 basis points to 7.00%, as a result of inflation rise concern. This takes the cumulative increases to 2.00 percentage points since the MPC started tightening policy in January 2014. Regarding inflation, the MPC commented that since the previous MPC meeting in January, headline inflation has exceeded the upper end of the target…

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