News

ACCRA (Capital Markets in Africa) – Ghana’s main opposition pledged to review the central bank’s overhaul of the financial sector if the party wins December’s elections, saying the cleanup was unnecessarily drastic and expensive. Announcing the National Democratic Congress’s main economic policies to reporters in Accra on Thursday, ex-President John Mahama said some of the banks and second-tier lenders that were closed during the cleanup could be resuscitated. This will help depositors access locked-in funds sooner and reduce…

LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa) – The U.K. will relax visa rules for top scientists next month while pledging to clamp down on low-skilled migration after Brexit. The U.K. is due to leave the European Union in five days’ time and the government has promised to end free movement by EU citizens. Immigration was a key issue during the Brexit referendum and Prime Minister Boris Johnson is proposing a points-based system that prioritizes higher-skilled workers….

HARARE (Capital Markets in Africa) – Zimbabwean state doctors have found an unlikely ally in their four-month pay strike — telecommunications tycoon Strive Masiyiwa. The founder and majority owner of Econet Wireless Zimbabwe Ltd. have offered to pay them a Z$5,000-Z$10,000 ($290-$580) subsidy, based on seniority, for the next six months in a bid to end the strike that started in September and has crippled the southern African nation’s public health-care system. State doctors currently receive…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – The U.K. should return Nigeria’s former petroleum minister to face a corruption trial unless it produces its own charges against her, The Cable reported, citing the West African nation’s top anti-graft official. A long-running British probe into Diezani Alison-Madueke, who served as petroleum minister from 2010 to 2015, has yet to yield any charges, the news website cited Economic & Financial Crimes Commission Chairman Ibrahim Magu as saying. The EFCC…

NEW YORK (Capital Markets in Africa) – Tesla Inc.’s stock is soaring, and traditional auto manufacturers are staging glitzy presentations of new plug-in models. You’d think the electric-vehicle age was finally dawning. But so far, Tesla is the only car company looking likely to benefit in the coming years. Look at every other corner of the U.S. auto industry — the world’s most valuable automaker, dealers, consumer surveys and market forecasts — and a more ominous picture…

NEW YORK (Capital Markets in Africa) – Wells Fargo & Co.’s interim chief Allen Parker tried to bring a New York urgency to the California bank. The new boss is bringing New York. Charlie Scharf, who three years ago left the top spot at San Francisco-based Visa Inc. to rejoin his family on the East Coast, made staying in New York a prerequisite to taking the Wells Fargo job. He’ll run the $2 trillion lenders about 3,000…